Losing Faith
by sunchaser53
Summary: When Harry comes back from the graveyard he doesn't get the chance to tell Dumbledore that Voldemort has returned, and is accused of Cedric's murder. He goes on the run with the only people who believe him. Canon till after graveyard scence.
1. Running

**Chapter One: Running**

Harry groaned as he struggled to wake up and pushed himself up off the lumpy mattress on which he had slept for the night. He looked over at Ron and Hermione sleeping on the bed next to him as yesterday's events came back to him. He groaned again and set about waking his companions, who were just as tired as him. Finally, after threatening to get a bucket of cold water, all three of them were awake.

"Look we need to talk," he began.

"Oh no, not again Harry, listen," Hermione interrupted him.

"No you listen, I'm wanted for murder! They know that you left with me! If you return now you can just, I don't know, say I kidnapped you or something!"

"Harry stop!" Ron said, interrupting him again, "We've talked about this, we've gone over this, we're not leaving! We're your friends Harry we're in this together."

"You weren't so keen to be my friend when you found out I was in the Tournament," Harry said, trying to make Ron angry enough to leave.

"Yeah, well, I've already apologized for that haven't I, I was a right git too."

"The point is we're staying Harry," Hermione stated.

He looked at both of his friends determined faces, "Fine, what do we do now? We can't stay here," he stated, looking around the rundown muggle hotel room they had stayed in for the night.

"I say we find a muggle apartment and move in," Ron suggested. "I mean they'll never think to look for us in the muggle world."

"That's true," Hermione agreed, "the problem is we're minors, they won't let us just waltz in and buy an apartment."

"What about glamour charms? We could make one, or even all of us appear older."

"I think all of us, they're more likely to give an apartment to three young adults than one young adult and two teens."

"Yeah, we'll also need false names, if we accidentally run into a wizard they'll know who we are right away."

"OK, I'll be James Potterson."

"Not bad, I'll be William Redbird."

"Why William, isn't that your brothers name?"

"Yeah but my middle name is Bilius and I figured you guys could just call me Bill."

"Well if we're going by middle names, I'm Jean," she made a face.

"I agree," the boys said, also making faces.

"How about Jane, it's close enough and not to bad?"

"No, I think I'll go with Amy, I've always like the name."

"OK, Amy what's your last name?"

"How about, . . . Stevenson, Amy Stevenson."

"I like it."

"By the way I think we should change your last name Harry, I mean James."

"Why?"

"I agree with her mate, it's a bit obvious."

"How about James Redbird, we can be brothers."

"I'm OK with that mate, so how about those glamour charms Herm-, er Amy?"

"Well, since your brothers how about I make you twins?"

Harry and Ron shared a glance, "That would be wicked," they announced together, "we could fool people just like Fred and George do," Ron added.

"OK," Hermione said pulling her wand out of her bag. Thankfully they had managed to get all their things, including their school supplies, before leaving (or rather being chased out of) Hogwarts.

"Wait!" Harry shouted, "Won't the ministry know you did magic?"

"No, since it's still during the school year the ministry won't have it activated yet. They don't bother activating it during the school year because you're surrounded by magic." After finishing her explanation she quickly got to work on the glamours. When she had finished they were both identical. Their hair was a dirty blond similar to Harry's previous haircut but a bit longer and not as untidy. They both had a slight tan and stood at 5' 8". Their eyes were a light blue. They appeared to be about twenty years old. If she had not known where they had been standing before she would not know who was who. "Proudly presenting James and William Redbird, twins, both 20 years of age," she announced.

"Brilliant," they said looking at each other. "Do yourself now."

She then turned her wand on herself and began again. When she finished a 21-year-old woman stood before them at 5' 5". She had blond hair, but it wasn't the silvery blond of Malfoy, it was duller yet not quite dirty blond. Her eyes had stayed brown and she too was slightly tanned. "I'm going to be 21," she announced.

"How come you get to be older," Ron asked.

"Because I'm more responsible," she said smirking.

"She's got that right mate," Harry admitted as they both chuckled.

"Next step is finding some where to live," Hermione said, shrinking their belongings and putting them into her pocket.

"I agree with Ron, I mean Bill, we should live with the muggles."

"No offence Bill but you don't know that much about muggles."

"I can learn," Ron said stubbornly.

"Very well." They spent the rest of the day shopping for an apartment. Luckily for them Hermione had made them stop at Gringotts yesterday and they had withdrawn a lot of money from Harry's vault – transferring some of it to muggle money.

Eventually they found a nice place that would fit all of them and, after some bargaining, wasn't too expensive. It had four small bedrooms, each with a small closet, twin bed, desk (with chair), and small dresser. There were also two full bathrooms. The kitchen wasn't much but it had a fridge, stove, microwave, and sink. The main room only had a couch and a stuffed chair but it would door. Each of them claimed a room and Hermione unshrunk their things so they could unpack. They met back up in the small main room, Harry and Ron sitting on the couch while Hermione claimed the chair.

"So what do we do now?" Ron asked.

"We need to train," Harry stated, "We're the only ones who know that Voldemort has returned, besides his Death Eaters."

"Do you think you could tell us what happened?" Hermione asked, sharing a glance with Ron, "If you don't feel up to it that's OK."

"No, you guys need to know," Harry took a deep breath and began to tell them every thing that had happened in the graveyard. "When I got back I think Moody hit me with a silencing charm, I couldn't say anything. They took me up to the hospital wing and when I woke up Moody was alone with me. He told me that Voldemort had originally wanted me dead, but I was much more useful to him alive now. He did something with my wand and the next thing I know I'm one the run with you guys after being accused of Cedric's murder. They even used _Prior Incantato_ to prove that the last curse I had used was _Avada Kedavra._"

"Moody?" Hermione whispered, "Moody is a Death Eater?"

"I don't think so," Ron said, "I've heard a lot about him and from what I know he's no Death Eater."

"Maybe, maybe he is," Harry said thinking hard.

"What!"

"No listen, Voldemort said he had a Death Eater at Hogwarts AND Moody kept helping me. Wait Ron, I'm not saying Moody is a Death Eater, I think someone was impersonating him."

Hermione gasped, "Polyjuice potion, Moody only ever drank from his hip flask, it would be easy to fill it with polyjuice."

"Snape said someone had stolen Boomslang skin from his stores!"

"It all fits!"

"But who was impersonating him?"

"I saw Barty Crouch in Snape's office on the Map."

"Barty Crouch?"

"But it can't have been him, I mean he was totally against the dark arts!"

"What was he like when you saw him in the forest James?"

"I don't know, it was like he was delusional, he wasn't making much sense."

"Maybe he was under the Imperious Curse?" Ron asked.

"Yeah! That makes sense, he must have known something so they tried to control him, but he was fighting it." Hermione said looking at Ron proudly.

"And Moody was the one who went after him, he probably killed him."

"But it had to have been Crouch in the office, the Map never lies, remember, it saw Wormtail."

"Crouch had a son remember? Maybe it was him."

"Sirius said he died in Azkaban."

"Maybe he snuck out?"

"I don't think so, it's very hard too-"

"Wait, I think it is him! When Moody was gloating to me he was comparing himself to Voldemort. He told me that both of them had been named after their fathers and both of them had the pleasure of killing their fathers."

"But how'd he get out of Azkaban?"

"I don't know, but we can't rule him out can we?"

"No, we can't, he's a definite possibility."

"Well it's getting late, we can go to bed and finish planning everything in the morning." Hermione said reasonably. They all said their goodnights and headed off to their respective rooms.

**A/N: I'm not British, I am American, if you want to point anything out feel free. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**


	2. Adjusting

**Chapter Two: Adjusting**

The next morning the three of them woke to rumbling stomachs and an empty kitchen.

"Alright, I know the most about Muggles so you two stay here while I go get some food, James maybe you can teach Bill about Muggles a bit."

"OK."

"Be careful."

"I will," and with that she left the apartment.

Harry spent the next hour teaching Ron about all things muggle before Hermione came back with food. He helped her cook then the three of them sat on the floor to eat their breakfast.

"I think we need to get jobs, we can't withdraw money from Harry's vault looking like this and I think we should save our wizarding money to use in Diagon Alley when we need to."

"I agree, but I don't think Bill is ready for a job yet, I think we should spend a few more days here until we're ready, and I think we should all get a job together."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, I'm not ready to get a Muggle job yet."

"OK, well James mentioned that we need to train and I think he's right."

"We can use the last bedroom for that."

Together they stood up and entered the fourth bedroom.

"It needs some modifications."

"Agreed."

"Think the Muggles will notice if we make a few changes."

"Not at all," they smirked at each other and set about changing the room. They transfigured the desk into a table and multiplied the chair twice so that they had a table up against a wall, but not a corner, with three chairs around it. Next they transfigured both the bed and dresser into bookshelves and placed one set of their schoolbooks from each year on them.

"While this is a nice room to study and plan in I don't think it's the best place to practice magic in," Hermione said.

"I've got an idea, can you cast a charm to enlarge a room so that it doesn't affect the rooms surrounding it?" Ron asked.

"It should be tricky but I think I can do it, why?"

"Use the spell on the closet, we can turn it into a training area."

"That's brilliant!"

Soon the difficult task was complete and the three teens stood back to admire their work. It was a large room, about the size of a muggle gymnasium, and it was completely empty.

"First I think we should set a schedule, we can't just focus on defense we have to focus on all aspects of magic."

"Let's set up a corner with all our potions stuff then, I don't think we should set a schedule until we have those jobs."

"OK."

They separated and went back to their rooms to collect their potions ingredients, lugging them to a corner of the large room. They set up their caldrons and Hermione transfigured a few shelves to put all their potion ingredients on them.

After a few seconds in silence as they appreciated the mornings work, Ron's stomach growled loudly and, laughing, they traipsed back into the kitchen to make lunch.

"Well I think our most important priorities are finding a job and figuring out a way to do magic during the summer," Hermione announced as they made themselves sandwiches.

"Well school ends in two days, we can spend the rest of today teaching me about Muggles, tomorrow we can go to Diagon Alley and pick up some supplies to do some research, we can also go job hunting tomorrow if we have time."

"Sounds like a plan." And so they spent the rest of the day in the newly named Study Room, teaching Ron about the various Muggle things he was likely to encounter. They went to bed that night feeling a sense of satisfaction about how well they were dealing with living on their own.

* * *

The next morning as they exited the apartment they were attacked by a white blur.

"Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed, excited, they had not had enough time to find either his or Ron's owl before they were forced to flee the castle. She landed on his shoulder and nibbled his ear in an affectionate way. "I'll be right back guys, I'm going to take her inside."

"Wait James!" Hermione yelled after him as he jogged back inside, "Where are you going to put her?"

"The Training Room has a pretty high ceiling, she can fly around in there," he replied without looking back. He set up a perch for her and conjured some newspaper that he placed on the floor around the area, then hurried back outside.

"Bill and I were talking while you were inside and we're going to have to pick up some books about tracking spells too," Hermione said.

"Yeah, magical owls can track anyone to send a letter and we don't want anyone to find out where we are," Ron agreed.

"OK, but I was thinking that we should get the Daily Prophet to keep up with the times, how are we going to do that if the owls can't find us?"

"We could send Hedwig, that way she won't get bored."

"But she's too noticeable."

"We could cast a glamour charm on her too?"

"Yeah that would work." They walked as they talked, heading to the Leaky Cauldron. Thankfully their apartment had been fairly close to magical London. No one paid any attention to them as they entered the pub and they quickly headed to the back to enter Diagon Alley. The first place they stopped at was Flourish and Blotts. Hermione had cast the Extendable charm on a small bag and they filled it with books that covered almost every subject at Hogwarts (not including Divination) and some things that weren't even taught at Hogwarts. Next they stopped by the Apothecary to pick up potions ingredients. They didn't really need anything else so they had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and headed out into Muggle London to find a job.

Eventually they passed a restaurant that was hiring and headed inside. The manager said he could use all the help he could get, as several of his workers had quit recently, and hired the three of them on the spot. Harry, who had learned to cook at the Dursley's, was made an assistant chef. Ron, who admitted he knew nothing about the kitchen, was assigned the task of dishwasher. Hermione was to be a waitress.

After receiving their work schedule (Mon. – Fri., 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and giving their word they would come an hour early on Monday (it was Friday) to learn all the rules and regulations they departed and headed back to their flat.

They unpacked their purchases and set to work convincing Hedwig that the glamour charm was not permanent and that she would be a brave and useful owl if she agreed. Eventually, after saying that they would take it off as soon as she arrived back at the apartment, she agreed and they cast a glamour to make her look like a common barn owl. They then wrote a note to the Daily Prophet, saying that they like their privacy and would be sending this owl every day to retrieve the paper instead of having it delivered. The note was anonymous.

Finally they perfected and performed the charm to prevent others from tracking them. Since it was exhausting work they had a quick, cold supper and headed off to bed, taking turns using the two showers.

* * *

The next morning they realized was the day everyone was leaving Hogwarts, and quickly began to look for a way to counter the Trace, which Hermione briefly described to Harry before they got to work. They weren't sure if their tracking prevention charms were enough to stop the Ministry from tracking them through it. Eventually Harry found something.

"Guys, I don't think we have to worry about it."

"What?"

"According to this, since the glamour charms you used didn't just create an illusion, they physically changed us, we are physically of age and the Trace is cancelled."

"So we don't have to do anything?"

"I don't think so, here Amy, you read it." It had been easy to get into the process of using their fake names, since they looked nothing like their old selves.

"James is right Bill, we don't have to do anything."

"Well that was easy."

They all looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Uh, guys why are we laughing?" Harry managed to get out. This questioned startled them out of their laughter.

"It's probably just shock," Hermione said reasonably, "I mean, here we are, three teenagers living on our own, outlawed from the world we belong in even though we are innocent of what we were accused of."

"Yeah, I guess," Ron agreed.

"OK, we can draw up that schedule that you wanted now Amy," Harry stated pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill. "What shall we call ourselves?"

"How about The Resistance?"

"OK, long term goals, defeat Voldemort," when Ron and Hermione flinched he started complaining, "come on guys, we can't defeat him if we can't even say his name! Say it with me now Vold-e-mort, Voldemort."

"Vol, Voldemort," Hermione said shakily but proudly.

Ron looked at both of his companions, who were looking at him expectedly, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said "Voldemort."

"Excellent," Harry said, clapping Ron on the back and giving Hermione a one armed hug. They both smiled at him happily. "Now, moving on, short term goals, what do we want to achieve?"

"I think we want to become pretty powerful."

"Okay, one, learn lots of magic."

"We should try and learn wandless magic too."

"You should add prove our innocence to long term goals."

Harry agreed with these sentiments and wrote them on the parchment.

"So, long term is to defeat Voldemort and prove our innocence, short term is to learn lots of magic, including wandless. Anything else?"

"How about becoming Animagi?"

"Yeah that would help."

"So basically become experts in all aspects of magic?"

"Yeah."

"Pretty much."

"We also need to help Moody?"

"What?"

"The real Moody, not the fake Moody."

"He's right, the imposter said he was only teaching for one year so who knows what they're going to do with the real Moody when they finish."

"How do we know he's even alive though?"

"If the imposter is using Polyjuice he'd have to still be alive."

"OK, we'll rescue Moody on Sunday."

"Okay, now for the schedule, I say for weekdays we get up at seven, eat, exercise, study magic, eat, work, eat, exercise, and then sleep at ten."

"That would work, but it only gives us three hours of magic practice a day."

"I know but we really don't have any other options do we?"

"No. How about on Saturday we can start the schedule the same but how about we dedicate the morning to becoming animagi and instead of working we can dedicate the evening to potions."

"Good idea Bill, then on Sunday we can sleep in an hour and spend the day trying to do wandless magic."

"OK, so weekdays we dedicate to regular magic and work, on Saturday we work on potions and becoming animagi, and on Sunday we practice wandless magic."

"That's a busy schedule, I mean we're only around 15."

"How about this, if we have any days off work, for holidays and things, we can take the day off of learning too?"

"Yeah I like that."

They spent the rest of the day, organizing their thoughts, planning on rescuing Moody, and reviewing facts about Muggles with Ron.

**A/N: Tell me how I'm doing? Any errors? Happy Reading!**

**Disclaimer: Let me check, nope, still don't own it.**


	3. Rescuing

**Chapter Three: Rescuing **

The next day they sent Hedwig out for the first time to get the Daily Prophet. They went for a run to complete their set task of exercising for the morning and when they returned she was there waiting for them. After taking off her glamour they settled on the floor to eat and read the news.

"What does it say about us?" Ron asked.

Harry spread it out so they could all see the article:

_Harry Potter: The Next Dark Lord?_

_As readers will know Harry Potter is indeed a disturbed young man, but now rumors are circulating that he is attempting to take the place of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as the next Dark Lord. A few days ago Potter returned from the third task of the legendary Triwizard Tournament clutching the dead body of fellow Hogwarts champion Edric Diggoy._

_Further investigation reveals that Potter not only murdered Diggoy but cast the Imperious Curse on the Durmstrang champion Vincent Krud. Ever since vanquishing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named most of us have wondered how he has accomplished this feat. It comes as no surprise to me that this is because he himself is a dark wizard. Few even see fit to defend him, citing his 'gift' of parsletounge as yet another example of proof that Harry Potter is not who many thought he was._

_Potter is currently on the run with two other children, Muggleborn Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. The Weasleys declined to comment, however, they were obviously distraught that their son had chosen the dark side._

At that last comment Harry and Hermione let out a giggle. Ron looked at them bewildered. "What?"

"Muggle thing," they both said. After a pause they began discussing the article. Ron seemed distraught that his parents believed that Harry was a killer, both his friends could tell that he was rather depressed but they both knew their was nothing they could do about it. "I'm sure Sirius feels the same way," Harry had commented, and they dropped the subject matter – though anyone could tell they were all still depressed at being betrayed by those that they loved. Other than that they felt that it wasn't a big deal, they had talked about and expected this.

"Well, we are now officially outcasts of the wizarding world," Ron declared loudly.

"Maybe we should owl Sirius for tips," Harry snickered.

"Focus boys, we need to go get Moody. Let's go over the plan one more time." Both boys rolled their eyes but recited it dutifully.

"Take the Knight Bus to Moody's house-"

"Stun the fake Moody-"

"Grab him-"

"Find the real Moody-"

"Give him the note-"

"And then leave," they finished together. Hermione too rolled her eyes at their antics but let it pass.

"It's a good thing you guys are such good friends, you actually look like twins when you do that," she complimented them.

"Thanks," they said in unison. "Now let's go."

* * *

As they Knight bus vanished behind them with a bang Harry watched as Hermione and Ron pulled the invisibility cloak over their head. As soon as they had vanished he headed indoors, knowing that they would follow him. When they had found Moody's address they had also found blueprints of his home and all three of them had memorized them, though they had no idea where either the real or fake Moody would be found.

Entering the house he heard sounds coming from above and quickly headed to where he knew the stairs were. He silently crept up the stairs and peered around the first doorway wand in his hand. Seeing someone bending over Moody – a Moody missing his leg and magical eye – with his wand out, he yelled "Stupefy!" The man fell where he stood and Harry approached him cautiously, turning him over to view him correctly. It was Barty Crouch. "It's him," was all he said to tell the others who the imposter was, neither of them having seen Crouch Jr. before.

"Who are you?" Moody growled out, suspicious.

"Someone who wants to help," Harry said shortly, handing him a note. "Don't tell anyone I was here."

When he turned back the body of the Death Eater was absent and he knew that Hermione and Ron had done their job. Grabbing the illegal portkey Hermione had created he held out his hand. As soon as he felt someone take it he activated the portkey that transported all four of them back outside the apartment. Hermione pulled the invisibility cloak off Ron, who was holding Crouch Jr., and herself and they headed inside. Ron deposited Crouch in the Training Room and Hermione retrieved the Veritaserum they had bought the other day while he double and triple checked that Crouch no longer had a wand and that he was securely restrained. Hermione forced his mouth open and dropped a few drops of the potion in before he revived him – both his companions back under the invisibility cloak.

"Ennervate," he said, pointing his wand at the Death Eater. Crouch woke with a groan but did not say anything. "How long have you been impersonating Alastor Moody?"

"A little less than a year."

"Do you work for Voldemort?"

"Yes," a small grin worked its way onto his face, as though nothing pleased him more to be of service to the Dark Lord.

"How did you escape Azkaban?"

"My mother did not want to see me die. She took on my appearance and I took on hers. My father smuggled me out."

"Why did you not rejoin Voldemort immediately?"

"My father had me under the Imperious curse, he did not want to risk me getting away but he did not want to kill me."

"Stupefy," Harry turned back to his friends, who were pulling off the invisibility cloak, and dropped the cold manner he had used to interrogate Crouch. "That was everything we needed to know right?" he asked, a hint of worry in his tone.

"Don't worry."

"You did fine, we got everything we need."

"All we have to do is give our dear Minister a gift," Ron concluded with a smirk as he picked up Crouch again. "See you in a few." They had decided that Ron would go alone, since he knew more about the Ministry than either of them and that he was less likely to get caught alone. Also, at their current heights, they could not fit the three of themselves under the cloak together anymore.

* * *

When Ron returned lunch was ready and they all sat down to eat.

"So what time are we meeting Moody again?"

"Five. We need to discuss who's going to be seen."

"Well I think it should only be just Ron or me, he's already seen me and Ron is identical. As much as we want his help I don't think we should trust him too much."

"Agreed, I think it should be Harry, we don't know if Moody is good enough to pick up on the difference in mannerisms."

"What?"

"He might be able to tell it's not the same person as before based on behavior."

"Oh."

"Anyway, his eye can see though my cloak so either I go alone or we find a different way to disguise you guys."

"Your not going alone, that's ridiculous – what if something happens."

"Alright, I think we should use polyjuice potion."

"But why, he doesn't know us?"

"Well for one you look exactly like me so that could be a problem and two if I introduce him to you two later we don't want him to recognize you because then he might think we were spying on him."

"But we're going to be."

"Yeah but he doesn't need to know that."

"Okay, so polyjuice, we can just pick some random muggles. What are we going to tell him?"

"Well if we tell him Voldemort is back I don't think he'll believe us."

"We should figure out what he remembers of the past year first."

"Yeah and then we can say we're vigilantes."

"What?"

"No, Bill's right, that would work."

"How James?"

"We can say that we are going around trying to stop all former Death Eaters, that way he won't be too suspicious and we don't have to tell him Voldemort is back."

"But why shouldn't we tell him that?"

Harry's voice took on a hardened quality, "Because I don't trust him, I don't trust anyone except for you three. All we need is ourselves, we can do this."

"Together, forever," they chanted together. Harry looked at his two friends, his true friends, he would trust them with his life and he knew they would do the same. They could do this, and they would.

**Disclaimer: I'm afraid it's still not mine yet, but I'm working on it. :P**


	4. Meeting

**Chapter Four: Meeting**

Harry entered the pub, looking around for Moody who he spotted easily due to the hat over his eye. Ron and Hermione were already disguised as two unsuspecting Muggles from whom they had stolen hair. He spotted them two tables away from Moody (who was in a corner) against a wall, engaged in conversation. Moody still looked a little ill but he definitely looked better than he had when Harry had seen him earlier that day.

He walked over to Moody and sat down in a chair, acting as though he had known Moody his entire life.

"Hello Alastor," Harry spoke easily, knowing it would give him an air of power. When they had discussed the meeting they had decided that they wanted Harry to appear powerful, powerful and mysterious. Though Harry truly wasn't all that powerful, he was planning on becoming powerful – and it wouldn't hurt to earn a reputation. Sometimes you didn't need to be powerful to make others wary, you just had to _appear_ powerful. It was a big bluff, but Harry was confidant he could pull it off. Besides, he had backup.

"Who are you?" Moody questioned gruffly, it was clear from his manner that he didn't trust Harry at all.

Inwardly Harry smirked, he had expected this. From what he had gleaned about Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody, he didn't trust easily. Although in this case he had every right to be suspicious. He had been locked in a trunk for the entire school year and had been about to be killed by his captor when a young wizard he had never seen before saves his life and tells him to meet him. Meanwhile his captor mysteriously vanished during their short talk.

"Names aren't important," he said with an easy smile leaning back in his chair. "I mean, look at Voldemort, you could call him Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But you can call me Redbird, whether or not that's my name is of no consequence." Harry was pleased Moody didn't react when he said Voldemort other than to narrow his eyes, though he expected no less from the experienced Auror. Saying Voldemort also added to his appearance of power. Few people ever said the name, and those who did generally had some degree of power. He waited a short time to allow Moody to digest the information then continued.

He leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "Mr. Moody, I know you have some doubts about me and you would be foolish not to. However, in this case, I believe we are both very much on the same side. I am, as you might put it, a vigilante. I do not hold with the nonsense that Voldemort believes in, and, despite the fact that he is gone, his ideas and followers remain. I am attempting to . . . _eliminate_ his remaining followers," he made another short pause. "I am not asking you to join in on my efforts, however, you and I both know that several of his followers have escaped notice. I am merely asking that any, and I mean _any_ and all incriminating evidence you find against them you inform me of it."

"And why don't you remove the Death Eaters forcefully?" Moody countered, though he appeared to be thinking about the offer.

"Although it may appear contrary to your beliefs I am not a violent man – I believe in justice. These men have committed crimes, and will pay for them. Who am I to be their executioner? I merely wish to show what these _men_ have done and expose them," they had thought Moody would ask this and carefully worked out their answer. Though it was a coached response, it was by no means false.

Moody appeared to be thinking about the offer.

"Do you know what happened to you the past year?" Harry asked suddenly, leaning back again.

Moody appeared startled but nevertheless answered in his usual gruff voice. "No, the bastard got me as my back was turned, next thing I know he's pulling me out of the trunk, bragging about how he's going to kill me. Then you showed up. Idiot."

Harry smirked. "I agree, if you're going to kill someone just do it, don't waste time talking about it."

Moody inclined his head in agreement. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what happened?"

"Well, I suppose you know that the Triwizard Tournament was going to be held?" At Moody's nod he continued. "Well they followed though with it, but it was a bit unusual – all over the news. Instead of the usual three champions there were four, one from each school and Harry Potter."

"Potter was made a champion?"

"Indeed, apparently did rather good too, he was tied for first at the beginning of the third task. Next thing anyone knows he appears at the front clutching another champions dead body. No one knows how he got there; some suspect he made the cup into an illegal portkey. Somehow he got away – he's on the run with two other kids, wanted for murder."

Moody's eyes widened slightly at this, "Kid's a murderer?"

"Yeah, shocked me too, but I've always wondered how he could have survived that curse. They say he's a parsletounge too," they sat in silence for a few moments until Harry spoke again. "So, gonna take me up on that offer?"

"How would I contact you?"

Harry took the fact that he didn't say no as a good sign. "Here," he pulled out a piece of parchment, "it's enchanted, I have an identical piece. Anything you write will appear on my piece and vice versa. Feel free to check it for curses." Moody did just that, pulling the parchment under the table so the Muggles wouldn't see him doing magic. Finally he was satisfied.

"That all kid?" he asked.

"Not quite, got something that might help you," here Harry pulled a flask out of his pocket filled with silvery stuff and tossed it to Moody as he got up. "Thought you might want to know what you were up to the past year." He started to walk away, "Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you kept this meeting quiet," he said over his shoulder. Knowing that Moody might be watching him he ignored Ron and Hermione and left. He knew that they would follow him after fifteen minutes.

* * *

"So how'd it go?" Ron asked as soon as he got in the door.

"Not too bad, it felt a little weird to be talking about myself and I kept wanting to say we instead of I but I never messed up."

"That's good," Hermione agreed, entering the flat. "Do you think he'll help us?"

"I do, he seems like the kind of person who wouldn't want to let any Death Eater go, no matter how much he was bribed. I don't think he's helping us, I mean me, because he wants to help us but because it will help put Death Eaters in prison."

"Well at least he's helping us."

"Yeah, you guys get anything to eat there?"

"No, we figured since you wouldn't be eating we'd just wait till we got home."

"An amazing feat for you Ronald."

"Hey!"

Harry laughed at their antics, those two were always bickering. "I'll just order a pizza."

**Disclaimer: I'm still waiting, but it's not mine.**


	5. Arguing

**Chapter Five: Arguing**

Time passed relatively quickly for the three fugitives. For the first week instead of practicing new magic they merely reviewed what they had learned for the past four years. The training room came in pretty handy for that. Harry even discovered he was fairly good at potions to his surprise. They had actually studied why certain ingredients reacted the way they did and he understood it a lot easier. It was a lot like cooking actually, and he had a lot of practice with that from the Durselys.

Their job was also very easy – the restaurant wasn't that busy and they had breaks every now and again. All three of them had agreed not to get close to anyone so they just hung out with each other. Hermione was researching a variation of the silencing spell so people could hear them talking but could not make out what they were saying. For now however they simply did not talk about wizarding matters in public.

After the first week they had moved on to more complicated things. None of them had achieved anything while practicing wandless magic and for now they were just studying and researching how to become animagi but they had learned several new spells.

As time passed however, tension was mounting. With every new article printed, citing an old friend of theirs who believed them guilty, they got more and more depressed and angry. Eventually, after a month of hiding, another article came out that was the last straw, stating how the recent murder of a Muggle family through use of the Avada Kedavra curse was initiated by Harry and his followers. There was even a statement from Dumbledore stating that he didn't want to believe it before but that now he has no doubts that Harry has gone dark.

"Just great, no one believes me!" Harry muttered to himself, exasperated.

"Shut up Harry, at least you don't have parents, otherwise you'd be betrayed by them too," Ron snapped, angry about the various comments from the Weasleys cited in the news the past month.

"So you're happy my parents are dead huh? You would prefer it if I killed your parents then! You wouldn't feel so betrayed? Huh?"

"Of course I don't want my parents dead! I'm just saying you're lucky yours are!"

"Lucky! You call this lucky! We're outcasts! The entire wizarding world hates us! I wouldn't call this lucky!"

"STOP, just stop!" Hermione cried out.

"What would you know, no one's betrayed you," Ron snapped at her.

Hermione burst into tears, "Just stop it you two," she sobbed.

Ron immediately stopped yelling, "Oh, Amy, I'm so sorry," he said, an apologetic expression on his face as he moved to comfort her. Harry too stopped yelling, looking ashamed.

"Yeah, sorry."

"It's okay," she said, calming down. "I think we all just had a lot of emotions bottled up. From now on we tell each other everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"Definitely."

"I don't even know what my parents are thinking, I never came home this summer," Hermione said, her face falling again.

"Maybe we can go see them?" Ron suggested halfheartedly.

"Don't be silly Bill, Dumbledore might have told them what's going on."

"I think we should go see them," Harry stated suddenly.

"What? Why?"

Harry shrugged, "For one, it will give you some closure Amy, and for two, well, if they believe us we could use their help."

"No offense James but how could my parents help us?"

"Well I've never been to the dentist," he joked.

"Very funny James."

"I'm serious though, we already recruited Moody, why not them?"

Moody had been silent for the past month, though they had completely expected this. Most likely the first thing he had done was to research 'Redbird' and do a thorough check on the parchment for any hidden spells. Harry knew the only reasons Moody hadn't hexed him had been because he had saved his life and kept his hands above the table where Moody could see them the entire time.

"They're Muggles James! What do you want them to do?"

"Exactly, we aren't just defending the wizarding world here, we're defending both worlds. Not to mention we're hiding in the Muggle world. They know more about the Muggle government than we do. Chris already got suspicious when we asked for our paychecks in cash. Your parents can help us make fake I.D.s and set up a bank account. They can tell us some good companies to invest in so we can increase our small cash flow, heck they can even teach us to drive!"

Hermione seemed to be thinking about this.

"I agree with James," Ron said suddenly. "They could help us a lot with the Muggle world. And I've never been to the dentist either," he stated, grinning.

"Alright," Hermione conceded, "How are we going to do this?"

And with that they began planning.

* * *

That Sunday Hermione exited the Knight bus, still disguised as Amy, and carefully walked up to her, or what used to be her, house. Quickly she knocked on the door. Her father answered.

"Dr. Granger," she said promptly, "May I come in?" Not waiting for an answer she pushed her way past him, holding the door open long enough for Harry and Ron – who were under the invisibility cloak – to come in.

"Excuse me! What do you think you are doing?" Mr. Granger exclaimed loudly.

"Shhh! Dad, it's me!"

"What?"

"It's me, Hermione, your daughter."

"Oh my, wh… what are you doing here, is it true, what happened to you?"

"Whoa, slow down Dad, you might want to get Mom for this."

"Of course, make yourself at home."

Hermione knew that he could have merely called for her mother but gave him some time to compose himself as she settled herself in the living room. Eventually her father returned with her mother in tow.

"Hermione!" She whispered, "Is it really you?"

"Yes Mum, it's me," Hermione replied, grinning broadly.

"Oh honey, what happened? That man said you were on the run with a murderer and that you had broken the law!"

"There's a long complicated story behind all this but I'm just going to give you the basics. Basically my friend Harry was framed for murder and now I'm on the run with him and Ron."

There was a shocked silence. Then her mother spoke. "Harry? That boy you told us about is a murderer?"

"NO!" Hermione said forcefully, "He was framed."

"But why didn't you just try to prove his innocence, why did you three run?" Her dad spoke this time – obviously trying to wrap his head around the fact that woman in front of him was his daughter who happened to be running from the law.

"Because they had 'evidence' that he had committed the crime."

"Evidence?" Her dad spoke again.

"It was like, like they had DNA evidence but no one knew someone had planted his hairs at the scene," she explained, searching for something her parents would understand.

They both nodded in understanding.

"But he's your age isn't he?" At her daughter's nod she continued, "So how could they think that he had murdered someone?"

"I don't know, sometimes I think wizards lack common sense," Hermione joked. Her parents gave her a weak smile. "But you believe me don't you?"

"Of course sweetie," her mother hugged her tightly, "But why don't you look like yourself?"

"Oh this," Hermione looked down at herself and laughed lightly. "I needed a disguise, right now I am no longer Hermione Granger, I am Amy Stevenson. You should get used to calling me Amy if we are to keep seeing each other."

"What do you mean _if_ we are to keep seeing each other, you're staying here right?"

"No Mum, I can't, I'm on the run remember? I won't put you guys in danger like that."

"So why would you come here?" her father asked hesitantly, "It's not that I'm not happy to see you but if it puts you in danger why would you come?"

"We wanted to ask for your help."

"_We?_"

"Ron, Harry, and I."

"These are the two boys you're on the run with?"

"Yes, though they are disguised also so you'll have to call them James and Bill."

"Are we meeting them?" her mother asked, alarmed.

"Yes actually they're here right now."

"What?"

"They're invisible, guys you can come out now."

Harry and Ron took off the invisibility cloak quickly, much to the surprise of the two Muggles in the room. "Hey Dr.'s Granger," they said simultaneously.

"They're twins?"

"Not really –"

"It's just –"

"Our disguise." They said.

"Works for them, doesn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Her father chuckled lightly, "How do you tell them apart?"

"It's not too hard, I know them too well," She smiled too. That was one thing she always loved about her parents – they were quick to adjust.

"So what do you want us to do?" he asked. That was another thing – they always got down to business.

Together the three of them sat down and told he parents what they had discussed earlier. The Grangers quickly agreed to help and they set a weekly meeting time – and place. They didn't want anyone to notice their meetings and become suspicious.

* * *

Back at the apartment Ron was sulking.

"What's wrong Bill?" Hermione asked.

"I sorry, it's just, I can't help but feel jealous, I mean your parents believe you; why don't mine?"

"I'm sure if they heard the whole story-"

"No Amy, Dumbledore probably told them the whole story and they believe him anyways."

"Then forget about it Bill. I know it's hard, and it's going to take a while, but you don't need them anymore, you've got us. And we'll always be here for you – no matter what," Harry added.

"Thanks guys."

"No problem."

"We're here for you mate."

**Disclaimer: Don't sue me because I'm pretty sure I don't own HP.**

**A/N: I'm open to suggestions for their Animagi forms - they won't appear for a while but I need ideas.**

**Thanks to WLMNA for reviewing!**


	6. Interlude: Neville

__

**Chapter Six: Interlude – Neville**

Neville quickly exited the Floo, in case others came through, and searched the Leaky Caldron for the Weasleys. As he spotted their red hair and went over to greet them he remembered the whole reason for their meeting.

_

* * *

_

_It was the day after the third task and he was sitting in the common room just staring into the fire when Fred approached him (or maybe it was George – he could never tell). _

"_How are you Neville?" whichever twin it was asked._

_Looking up in surprise at being addressed he quickly stated "Fine," before looking back into the fire._

"_Isn't it odd__knowing that he could have killed you at any time? I mean you slept in the same room as him," Fred said, looking at him closely. Neville didn't have to ask who he was._

"_I…Harry didn't…I mean, he wouldn't…" he found it hard to voice what he was thinking, and didn't want Fred (or George) to think he was crazy._

"_You don't think he did it either do you?" Fred asked. Neville looked up again. "Meet us in Binn's classroom after dinner."_

_Neville said the first thing he could think of, "Us?"_

_But Fred just smiled and walked away._

_

* * *

_

Neville had arrived at the classroom to find not only Fred and George but also Ginny and a Ravenclaw in Ginny's year, Luna Lovegood (who had apparently told Ginny that she didn't believe her brother was guilty). At first he had wondered how he was going to convince them that Harry was innocent (I mean, even Dumbledore thought he was guilty) when they told him the meeting was because none of them believed Harry was guilty. They hadn't wanted to talk in Hogwarts so they had agreed to owl each other about meeting over the summer.

"Hey guys," he greeted them nervously.

"Hey Neville," Ginny responded.

"What's up?" Cried out the twins.

"Hello," Luna said dreamily.

He smiled nervously at the attention he was receiving. "Are we going to talk here?" he asked.

"No, Fred and I rented a room," George (or was it Fred pulling his leg?) told him.

Neville frowned. He knew the Weasleys didn't have that much money, but he was too nervous to question them. "I… I can help pay for that."

"Don't worry Neville."

"We got it," the twins responded, as the five of them headed up to the room.

Once inside the twins quickly put up some charms, most likely to prevent people from listening in.

"You all know why we're here correct?" One of them asked, actually serious.

"Yes," Luna said dreamily.

"Harry's innocent," Ginny continued fiercely.

He quickly nodded in agreement as the twins looked at him. "But what can we do about it?" he asked nervously, "We're just kids."

"First of all, we're going to connect them," one of the twins said as the other pulled something out from under the bed. "Say hello to Pig!"

"But isn't that Ron's …" Realizing how brilliant the twins were Neville smiled quickly.

"Exactly," the other twin now continued his brother's speech, "we're going to write them a letter and we're all going to sign it."

"Them?"

"Wherever Harry is Ron and Hermione will be right behind him," it was Ginny who spoke this time.

Neville nodded at that, he knew it was true, except for the beginning of this year they were always together. "What are we going to tell them?"

"Don't worry –"

"We've already written a letter-"

"All you have to do-"

"Is sign it." The twins finished together, one of them pulling out a letter.

Neville read it over:

_Dear Harry, Ron, and Hermione,_

_We would like to inform you that we do not believe the rag that happens to state dearest Harry is a murderer. We simply do not believe it possible. We have formed a secret organization within the very halls of Hogwarts called SHP(Support Harry Potter), or as we like to call it, ship. Any and all information you require from within Hogwarts is at your service once term begins._

_We do have a few questions however, if you can tell us. One we would like to know what really happened, we don't need details, just the basic facts. Two, ship in itself is a codeword, and, since we cannot talk about you in public, we want your suggestions for codenames for yourself._

_Your faithful supporters,_

_Fred and George Weasly_

_Ginny Weasley_

_Luna Lovegood_

He looked up; everyone was looking at him in anticipation, even that Luna girl. He frowned. "Just one question," he said as serious as could.

Exchanging nervous looks the twins replied, "What?"

"Anybody have a quill?"

The twins looked at each other and laughed, followed by Ginny.

"Good one Neville –"

"Didn't know you had it in you!"

Neville quickly signed the letter and gave it back to Fred, who quickly rolled it up and gave it to Pig. Carrying him to the window Neville heard him mutter, "Go find our brother," before sending him out the window.

"You really think they can make it out there?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"It's been a month since the third task, if they've made it this long they're good enough to make it until we clear Harry's innocence," surprisingly it was Neville himself who said this.

"I agree," Luna stated in what Neville was beginning to assume was her normal voice.

Neville looked at his watch; it was already five minutes past the time his gran had told him to be back. "I've got to go guys, when will we meet next?"

"Ship will be meeting same time next week."

"Think you can manage that?"

"Yeah, I'll owl you if I can't," Neville looked around the room, "Thanks guys," he headed out the doors.

"For what?" Ginny called out.

He paused at the doorway before leaving, "For … for including me."

**A/N: There, I finally got it out (has it really been two months?) and I apologize for the dreadfully long wait, I had practically no free time for the month of January and then I hit some writer's block, but don't worry! I now have an idea!**

**Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I don't.**

**Thanks to Lilt for reviewing!**


	7. Changing

**Chapter 7: Changing**

Another two months had passed, but not as nice as the first one. True, it was nice to finally learn that not everyone believed him a murderer. Harry recalled the first letter they got from Ship.

_

* * *

__They had been sitting around the table, eating dinner one Saturday when Hedwig hooted loudly. Ron got up and let her outside and they had resumed dinner, thinking nothing of it._

"_Dad's agreed to teach all three of us to drive and he's going to give Bill a crash course in banking so that we can handle our funds sufficiently," Hermione said, continuing their previous conversation._

"_Why me?" Ron asked, "I know the least about Muggles."_

"_But you grew up with Bill," Harry stated, "You know the most about banking."_

_Another loud hoot from outside stopped their conversation. They didn't let Hedwig out often, because Snowy owls were rare, but when she did go out she usually stayed out for a while, so, naturally, her hooting to come in startled them. Ron got up again. When Hedwig flew through the window she was followed by a furry blur._

"_Pig!" Ron cried out in excitement. The small owl flew around Ron's head before landing on his outstretched arm. "He's got a letter."_

"_Who would be writing to us?" Harry had asked, curious, "I thought your family didn't believe we are innocent."_

"_I dunno, maybe it's Ginny – she did have a crush on you so I doubt she believes you're guilty."_

_Ron unfolded the letter and read it quickly, a look of surprise coming over his face. When finished, he handed it off to Hermione, who then read it with Harry looking over her shoulder._

"_Wow," Harry summarized._

"_Wow is right James, I definitely wasn't expecting this," Hermione stated._

"_Do you think they are telling the truth?" Ron asked hopefully._

"_Your brothers may be jokesters, but even they wouldn't joke about this."_

_After much discussion, they had replied to the letter, giving different code names, as Will, Henry, and Jane, in case they ever ran into ship while still in disguise._

_

* * *

_Nevertheless, it was not a fun time.

"Ok, this is enough!" Harry exclaimed, throwing down the newspaper onto the table.

"What is it this time?" Hermione asked wearily, looking up from the book she was reading.

"It's another stupid group claiming to be 'Potter's Death Eaters' that attacked Montrose yesterday! We need to do more, all we've done so far is study, Moody hasn't even told us anything yet!"

"OK, then let's think of a way to get the blame off you," Ron entered the conversation.

"What?" Harry looked at him startled.

"You said you wanted to do something, so let's find a way to prove these 'Potter's Death Eaters' aren't really yours."

"The only way they'll believe that is if I'm dead."

Ron appeared to be thinking for a moment, "Brilliant!" he suddenly exclaimed.

"I don't think I'm following you Bill."

"You said the only way they'll believe it is if you're dead, so let's make them think you're dead."

"Bill, you'd have to have evidence, and that means a dead Harry," Hermione reentered the conversation warily.

"So we use Polyjuice."

"That still involves a dead body."

"I'm for it," Harry exclaimed suddenly, "This people are murdering and torturing for no other reason than the fact that they can, because they want to and they like it."

"That doesn't mean we kill innocents!"

"We don't have to! Let's find one of them and use them instead."

"You in Amy?" Bill asked.

She hesitated, "I suppose, who did you have in mind?"

Harry answered without hesitation, "Pettigrew."

This time it was Ron who hesitated, "I'm all for it James, except if you kill Pettigrew disguised as you Sirius's innocence will never be proven."

"I suppose you're right," he sighed heavily, "as much as he has betrayed me I still want him to be able to prove his innocence. He did eat rats for me." Harry sat back down, having stood up in anger over the newspaper article.

Ron chuckled, "Yeah he did, how about we just grab the next Death Muncher we see?"

"One problem with that Bill, we haven't seen any Death Eaters," Hermione responded.

"So we do some research and we find them."

"OK, how do we start?"

"Let's make a list of known Death Eaters and some facts about them."

After about an hour of work they had compiled a list, based on the names Harry had heard in the graveyard:

_Lucius Malfoy – wife Narcissa, son Draco (5__th__ year)_

_Crabbe – son Vincent (5__th__ year)_

_Goyle – son Gregory (5__th__ year)_

_Nott – son Theodore (5__th__ year)_

_Lestranges – in Azkaban_

_Wormtail – rat animagus, real name Peter Pettigrew_

_Avery _

_Walden Macnair – works for Ministry, Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures_

_Crouch Jr. – posed as Moody, captured by ministry? escaped?_

_Karkaroff – got out of Azkaban by giving names, headmaster of Durmstrang (ran away)_

They hadn't seen anything in the news about Junior, so they didn't know if he had escaped or been rescued or whatnot. They had, however, seen a small article stating that Karkaroff had fled the day of the third task, or what they called Kick-Off day (since it had effectively started the second war even if no one knew about it).

"Now we do some research," Hermione declared, looking at the list.

"Hold on, I feel like we're forgetting something though," Ron commented, staring at the parchment.

They all thought for a moment. "James you don't remember any other names do you?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that was it."

"Snape!" Ron exclaimed suddenly, "We forgot Snape!"

"Bill, he's not a Death Eater," Hermione said exasperated.

"Actually he was, he wasn't in the graveyard but he _was_ a Death Eater. Dumbledore said he reformed, remember, we talked about this after I fell in Dumbledore's pensive."

"Exactly, he was a Death Eater but he's not now. We can't kill him!"

"I know, but we can get information from him."

"Wait, James, you trust him to give us information! He's an evil git! What makes you think he'd tell us anything?" Ron burst out in shock.

"No I don't trust him all the way but if you think about it he's never exactly lied to us has he?"

"Of course he… well … no, I guess he hasn't, when you put it that way."

"Not to mention he's saved your life several times." Hermione added.

"True, he has saved Harry's life, I suppose we can ask for his help," Ron conceded. "But only if we just give him a piece of parchment like with Moody."

"Ok, so our plan of action is to find Snape?"

"Yeah, school has started again so it will be hard to corner him."

"Let's sneak in and corner him, we've got the cloak and the map, and we've learnt that disillusionment charm so we should be good."

"Are we going to let him see all of us?" Hermione asked.

"I think it should just be you Amy," Harry said, "Moody's seen me, and I don't want them talking and realizing they've been set up by the same person. Bill's effectively my twin, so he can't go either."

"James is right Amy, it will all work out. We can still fit the two of us under the cloak and you can cast a disillusionment charm then take it off when we meet Snape."

"I don't know, I don't think I can do this."

"Of course you can Amy, you're the smartest girl I know, because of you we're already almost done with fifth year material yet if we were at Hogwarts we would have barely started!"

"Thanks James."

"Hey, it's true."

"Yeah, I would have said the same thing," Ron added suddenly. Harry rolled his eyes, when were those two going to realize they liked each other.

"What about Moody though?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"We told him we weren't going to kill anyone, I realize we still have a lot of planning to do before we actually do the deed but we're still breaking our word."

"We'll write him and tell him then, if he backs out so be it. We're still going through with it. Now, let's start planning with Snape, I think we should do it next weekend…"

**A/N: Once again I apologize for the long wait, I may have gotten an idea, but I still don't have any time.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HP**

**Thanks to lilt for reviewing, and thanks for the tips, I wouldn't mind using one of your ideas, as long as it fit into the plot of my story.**

**A/N(2): I would have gotten this up sooner, but fanfiction wouldn't let me publish anything. Due to this error, the next chapter should be out tomorrow or the day after that.**

**3/29/11**


	8. Revealing

**Chapter 8: Revealing**

"Alright, how about after dinner?" Ron asked.

"That'll work, he never has detentions after dinner on Saturdays, and the teacher meetings are on Friday nights so we don't have to worry about that either," Hermione agreed quickly.

They set to work laying down the plan. Ron and Harry would be under the invisibility cloak, in case Hermione needed help. Hermione herself would be disillusioned. They were going to sneak in during dinner, using the passage from Honeydukes, and wait in Snape's office. Once he arrived Hermione would reveal herself and question him. They had decided to ask him if he knew Voldemort was back, and, if not, if he would spy for them – otherwise his life would be in danger. If he didn't know though, they wondered why Voldemort hadn't killed him yet; perhaps he thought it would draw too much attention to him.

"The only problem," Harry concluded, "will be getting into his office. He's bound to have it locked, or at least password protected."

"This week we should study unlocking charms and drop everything else," Ron agreed, "Despite the fact I don't think Dumbledore would let Snape completely ward his office I doubt a simple alohomora would do, not with Snape being who he is."

"It won't be too complicated though – he's only trying to keep out school children, not adults. We should be able to stop by Diagon Alley and pick up a few books about magical locks."

"And," Harry thought suddenly, "if none of the spells work we could just pick the locks – wizards don't often ward against Muggle techniques."

"True, still it will be useful to learn about wards and locks."

"When did you learn how to pick locks?" Hermione questioned however.

"Um, hello! I live with Fred and George!" Ron raised an eyebrow at her.

"Really!" She replied sarcastically, "I never knew that!"

"Well then why did you ask?"

"I was actually wondering where Harry learned how to pick locks!"

Harry, seeing a chance to stop one of their many arguments, quickly interrupted. "After he rescued me from the Dursley's second year I thought it was interesting. I asked if he would teach me and he agreed."

"Why did you need to pick locks, it's not like they locked you in did they?"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances. They had never told Hermione exactly what happened. Harry because he didn't want people learning about his relatives and Ron simply because he had never seen the need. Therefore, while they had used the term rescued, Hermione didn't know that Harry _had_ been locked in his room. Of course, Ron didn't know all the details either so Harry decided to let him explain.

"Actually he was, Fred and George had to pick the lock just to go get all his stuff. Hedwig was locked up too, I had to let her out of her cage."

Harry almost sighed in relief, Ron hadn't mentioned the bars.

"But that's wrong!" Hermione exclaimed, "They can't do that! How long were you in there?"

"Come on Hermione," Harry said lightly, "parents ground their kids all the time."

"_How long were you in there?"_ She insisted.

"Amy," Harry really didn't want to answer that question.

"Answer the question James."

"Three days," he mumbled quietly.

"Three days! They locked you in there for three whole days! James that's child abuse!"

"It wasn't that bad," he countered "they let me out to use the bathroom and they fed me."

"How much?" Ron entered the conversation angrily, "You were a twig when we found you."

"They fed me OK, it's not a big deal! Can we just go back to Snape?"

"No James, it is a big deal! You can't just let something like this go, it's not right! You have to know that!"

"I do know that-"

"I don't think you do James."

"I have to agree with Amy on this one – they had bars on your window, no normal parent would ever do that."

"Well they're not my parents-"

"So that makes it OK!" Hermione interrupted him again. "They're not your parents so it's OK for them to abuse and neglect you!"

"It's not abuse!"

"Yes it is James! Maybe not physical violence, but starving _is _physical abuse, not to mention verbal and mental abuse."

"Alright, it was wrong! Now can we just drop it!"

"Don't think you're getting out of this James – we're talking about it when we get back from work."

Harry sighed but didn't fight her and the three of them headed off to work for the day.

Work was the same as always, boring and uneventful, but at least it paid the bills. As soon as they returned to the apartment however, Ron and Hermione cornered him.

"Come on guys," he pleaded, "do we really need to have this conversation?"

"Yes," Ron said, "we do."

"Really, it's not that big of a deal," he whined.

"And that's the problem James, you don't even care you were abused," Hermione argued.

"Listen guys, I appreciate the concern but it wasn't-"

Ron interrupted him. "How would you feel if it was Amy, or even me, who had been locked in a room with almost no food for three days?"

Silence. Harry didn't know how to respond. "Look, that's different."

"How is it different James?" Hermione asked, giving a smile of approval to Ron for thinking of that question. "How?"

"It…it just is OK!"

"No it bloody well is not OK! It's abuse James! What else did they do that we don't know about?" Ron was starting to get angry. "I thought we agreed to tell each other everything!"

"I…we did," Harry deflated quickly, all thoughts of retaliation lost, "I'm sorry guys, I just don't like talking about it."

Hermione put a hand on his shoulder, "And that's normal, but the only way you'll feel better is if you talk about it."

"I just…you guys have enough to deal with, you don't need another burden."

"Neither do you – and it's not a burden knowing about your personal life James. You are _not_ a burden, and you never have been," Hermione said, leading him to the couch where she sat next to him. Ron, sitting on the chair, nodded in agreement.

"Alright, well um…that wasn't always my bedroom," he hesitated; he had never told anyone this before. "I used to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs."

There was a stunned silence. "What?" Hermione exclaimed angrily.

Ron swore loudly, standing up in anger, "Those bloody Muggles, they're going to pay."

"Calm down guys," Harry pleaded.

"I suppose that wasn't too bad either," Hermione snapped at him.

"Well," he began, then he saw Hermione's face and quickly changed thoughts, "never mind. It's just, it's not worth it. Dumbledore's probably watching the house, anyway."

Ron quickly deflated, "Your right," he said depressed, then quickly changed to anger again, "but they're still going to pay for this."

Harry didn't see any way he could convince him otherwise so he continued with his story, "Their, well their favorite form of punishment was lack of food," he still spoke quietly, fighting the irrational fear they would get angry at him for what he told them.

Rather than getting angry at the Dursleys, Hermione seemed to pick up on what he was thinking, "James, you know this isn't your fault right?"

Ron looked at him curiously, "Of course he knows that," he answered for him, "why would it be James' fault? Right?"

"Well, yeah I guess I know it's not my fault."

"You guess?" Hermione asked gently.

"Well, some part of me says it is my fault," when Ron made to interrupt him Hermione put up a hand. 'He needs to say this' she mouthed to him. Harry continued on without noticing the exchange. "I mean, the Dursleys didn't ask to take me in, I just got dumped with them."

"That doesn't excuse what they did James, whether they asked or not, it's against the law to treat a child that way."

"I know but…still."

"It'll take time to get over it, that's understandable; you've been raised to feel you're a burden. But you're not – and we're here to let you get over it."

"Always," Ron added firmly.

"Always," Hermione echoed.

"Thanks guys," Harry smiled, maybe it wasn't so bad after all, after all, they had each other, didn't they?

**A/N: Well I got the chapter up as promised, most likely you'll have to wait a week for the next one though.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Thanks to Hurricane Jackson, Anime-Rosalie for reviewing, and to emcee31 for reviewing almost every chapter!**

**3/30/11**


	9. Befriending

**Chapter 9: Befriending**

After a long conversation that night all three of them woke up on Tuesday feeling refreshed. They ate and had their normal exercise routine, then headed off to Diagon Alley to pick up some books on magical locks and wards. The rest of the week followed in their usual routine, except instead of learning magic in the specific fields they studied locks and wards, as well as taught Hermione how to pick locks.

Soon Saturday arrived and the three of them prepared to head off to Hogwarts. Ship had told them that the new DADA professor was a woman by the name of Kelly Lungu, and that there was nothing special about her. She was an average teacher, better than Quirrell and Lockhart but worse than Lupin and Moody (ship didn't know that Moody hadn't actually been Moody). The most important factor, at the moment at least, was that she did in fact eat dinner with the rest of the faculty, which assured them that, unless Snape left dinner with someone (highly unlikely), he would be alone when they confronted him.

Hermione summoned the Knight bus and they were off on another chaotic ride.

"We really need to learn to apparate," Ron muttered to Harry as they finally got off at Hogsmeade.

He replied in the affirmative and the three of them began walking towards Honeydukes. Before entering Hermione performed the disillusionment charm, it was unlikely to be crowded at this time so they had figured that the only way to slip into the basement unseen was to be invisible. True to the plan Honeydukes was practically empty. The owner looked about in confusion as the door opened on its own but they were still able to slip unseen into the basement, and, from there, into the tunnel. Harry and Ron pulled the invisibility cloak off while Hermione canceled the charm. They shared a glance, then started the long walk in silence.

Eventually they reached the end of the tunnel. Without a word Harry pulled out the Map while Hermione reapplied the charm.

"All clear," He announced, slipping the cloak back on next to Ron. "Snape was at dinner with everyone else."

He heard Hermione mutter something and the passageway opened. First Hermione, then the two of them climbed out of the secret passageway. Each of them silenced their own footsteps, then again set off in silence. Before long they were in front of Snape's office. Harry glanced at the map. "Everyone's still at dinner," He announced again, quietly this time. Without seeing it he knew Hermione had nodded and he and Ron waited as she worked on the locks.

"It's password protected, I've tried the usual things, nothing worked," Hermione said agitated.

"Try Lily," Harry offered on impulse, "I heard he was friends with my mum."

Unsurprisingly Harry's suggestion worked. "Why do you always get lucky?" Ron murmured good-naturedly.

Harry shrugged, and together they headed into Snape's private rooms. Quickly and to the point they wasted no time looking around and instead headed for an out of the way corner to hide. Based on the imprint it appeared Hermione had settled on the couch. Once he and Ron were comfortable Harry chanced a glance around. It was surprisingly bright for a room with no windows. He guessed it was lit with magic, based on the limited number of candles. Immediately upon entering the room he had noticed the two black ('typical' he thought) leather couches arranged in a V, facing the door, with enough space to walk between them. Hermione had sat on the left one, facing the corner where the two of them were hidden away under the cloak.

Behind the couches and against the far wall was a little kitchenette, complete with sink, stove, and fridge. Behind Hermione was a few bookcases, all packed with books. A stiff wooden table was next to the bookcases, in the corner on the left of the room. It was covered with papers (most likely student essays) yet still organized.

On the other wall, the one that helped form the corner they waited in, were merely two doors. Harry guessed that one led to the bedroom, and the other to the bathroom.

* * *

Eventually Harry spoke, "Get ready Amy." While there was no visual response, Harry knew she understood Snape was coming. He left the map open, in case anyone else headed this way.

The door opened with a quietly spoken "Lily" and just as Snape had closed the door and turned around his wand came flying out of his pocket with a just as quiet "Expelleramus"

Snape started as Hermione disillusioned herself and pocketed his wand. He quickly found himself at wandpoint.

"Sit," Hermione said, then smirked, "please."

Snape scowled, but, finding himself at wandpoint in the face of an unknown enemy he complied, mentally berating himself for being caught off guard all the while.

"Well Professor, you might want to prepare yourself," Hermione paused, smiled again, and then broke the news to their least favorite teacher. "Voldemort's back."

Snape seemed visibly startled for a quick minute before calming himself and resuming his usual expression. "How do I know you're telling the truth," he sneered.

Hermione smiled right back. "Because you know we're not lying. Voldemort has his own way of altering his followers."

Snape grabbed his forearm, then released it just as quickly. He glared at Hermione. "Why tell me this?"

"Because we want you to spy for us. I know you weren't present at his resurrection, and I know that didn't make him too happy. He's probably plotting to kill you as we speak. Going back to him and pretending you thought it was a prank would get you back into his good graces."

"Do you know what that entails foolish child?" Snape snapped.

"Yes, but I also know that if you don't he'll kill you. Voldemort doesn't forgive his followers easily."

"Stop saying the name," He hissed angrily. He paused, thinking for a moment. "If the Dark Lord really is back why hasn't he done anything?" He smirked, as though he had just presented a real challenge.

"Haven't you heard anything about the Death Eaters?"

"_Potter's_ Death Eaters, not the Dark Lords! The day Potter joins the Dark Lord is the day Dumbledore does."

"Potter's a killer," Hermione said harshly, "he proved that when he murdered Diggory." Snape snorted. "What you don't believe it?"

"Potter could no more have murdered Diggory than have murdered Weasley. I don't care what Dumbledore says – the boy wasn't a murderer. A menace maybe, but not a murderer."

Hermione regarded him curiously, "Very well, I have no evidence that Potter is actually involved with these Death Eaters." She stood. "You agree to rejoin the Dark Lord then in order to spy?"

Snape also stood. He nodded curtly, "How do I contact you?"

Hermione gave him a similar parchment to the one they had given Moody and explained it's properties. Upon leaving she stopped at the door, holding it open. "You made the right choice."

* * *

"You're right James, that was hard," Hermione stated as they made their way back into the apartment.

"What was I right about?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"It was hard to say I, I kept wanting to say we."

Harry laughed. "Now all we have to do is find a Death Eater."

"Because that's so easy!" Ron exclaimed sarcastically. They all laughed together as they ate a late dinner.

**A/N: Well, I was actually on schedule with this one! Hopefully I'll stick with it.**

**Thanks to emcee31 for reviewing.**

**4/7/11**


	10. Investigating

**Chapter 10: Investigating**

"So, I thought if we wanted to find a Death Eater we could either find where they live or find out where Voldemort is hiding out," Hermione began as they sat down the next weekend to begin their quest for a dead Death Muncher.

"As much as we've been training we're no match for Voldy," Harry joked, "so I say we go for his Death Munchers."

Ron nodded, "Malfoy's out, he's too hard to get, and probably too smart for us."

Harry and Hermione both agreed. "We've already said Wormtail's out and the Lestranges are in Azkaban," Harry added.

"I say Karkaroff, he's not with Voldemort so, while he may be hard to find, he'll be the easiest to subdue."

Hermione found herself nodding in agreement to Ron's plan. "The hardest part will be finding him but since we've actually spoken to him I think there are some tracking spells we can use."

"Karkaroff it is," Harry agreed. "Now, I have something else I think we should do." He hesitated.

"What is it James?" Ron asked.

"I just don't want to add to our workload, we're all still slightly depressed and we're doing a lot."

"What do we have to do besides study and work?" Hermione asked, slightly confused.

"Well, ever heard of the saying 'know thy enemy'?"

Hermione nodded while Ron looked confused. "You think we should look up more information on the Death Eaters." It wasn't a question.

Ron caught on quickly, also nodding in agreement with Hermione's plan, though he was slightly confused. "That's not that much James, why were you worried about being a burden." He noticed Harry hesitate. "If you have more you want us to do then tell us, we can do anything together."

"Well, honestly we haven't done that much, yeah we've trained and we're definitely more fit both magically and physically but what have we accomplished?" He paused, "I was thinking maybe we could recruit some followers, we have Moody and Snape but what if we added others? We don't have to even recruit them to help fight, they can help take down the Ministry. If we're going to change the government we're going to need help from the inside. As much as we wanted to do it alone – we can't."

Hermione nodded. "You're right."

"I am?" Harry asked astonished she had agreed so quickly.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Honestly James, when are you going to see that you have good ideas too."

Harry shrugged, and they began to plan their group. They called themselves the Wardens, since they thought Guardians was too obvious (though Wardens was pretty obvious too). They decided to make the work the Wardens did have nothing to do with bringing down Voldemort. Right now that the Wardens just wanted to change the government. They would have to send separate letters to Snape and Moody asking them to join the Wardens Circle.

"This is going to be confusing," Hermione sighed.

"Why?" Ron questioned her.

"We may already be pretty comfortable with our new names but we also have to remember the names we told Ship and now we'll have to remember these names. What if we forget?"

"Amy, there's no way you'd ever forget anything," Ron said chuckling slightly at her.

"That doesn't mean you won't!"

Harry sighed and interrupted another one of their various arguments. "So we don't get new names," He stated simply.

Hermione started. "What?"

He shrugged, "We don't give ourselves names, we could either use initials or titles."

"You can be Captain," Ron suggested immediately.

He made to protest but Hermione stopped him. "No, how about he's the Director and you're the General."

Ron nodded in agreement, "What about you? How about the Librarian?"

"I like it."

Harry made to protest again, but was again interrupted by Hermione. "James, whether you like it or not you are a born leader. I know you like to think we're all equal, and we are, but you're still out leader. You can't change that."

"Fine," he acquiesced reluctantly. "Now we just need to decide who's going to join besides Moody and Snape and what we're going to tell them."

"We'll need to give all of them codenames and phrases."

"But if they all have their own phrases how will they identify each other if we need them too."

"The phrases can just be for our use then; we can have a main phrase that we tell everyone."

"Alright."

Moody became Eye with the code-phrase of 'The eye always spins'. Snape was Chemist with the code-phrase of 'The bat flies silently'. They decided right now to focus on the Death Eaters though. They would send the letters later, along with deciding who else would join.

"Back to our original conversation," Ron said with a grin.

"Man we sure know how to get off topic, don't we?" Harry replied, grinning also.

"I'll say, are we all agreed to go after Karkaroff?" Hermione asked as they laughed together.

"Yeah, how about we skip wandless magic for once and spend tomorrow searching for Karkaroff, it's getting late."

"Alright, night."

"Night."

"Night."

* * *

The next day they got ready to hunt down Karkaroff.

"Polyjuice with my hair?"

"Check."

"Invisibility Cloak?"

"Check."

"Extra robes?"

"Check."

"Fake wand?"

"Check, I think we've got it all James."

"Excellent, let's go then."

Suddenly Hedwig hooted loudly. Ron swore, "We forgot to let her out."

"Bill!" Hermione scolded him.

Harry rolled his eyes at them and headed over to Hedwig's perch to let her out. He offered her his arm and she quickly floated over to it. He gazed at her for a moment, a sudden thought coming to him. He turned to his friends, "Why don't we just take Hedwig?"

"What?"

"Owls can track people, why don't we just take Hedwig?"

His friends gazed at him stupidly for a moment. "That's brilliant James!" Hermione finally exclaimed. "Why didn't we think of that earlier?"

Ron shrugged, "Wizards lack common sense." They shared a smile remembering their past exploits before departing with Hedwig. Hermione had finally learned how to apparate and had been practicing all week so she would take them both one at a time.

Once outside they hurried into the woods behind the apartment building and took out their wands.

Hermione performed her spell and narrowed down Karkaroff's location. After apparating Harry, Ron, and Hedwig separately she sat down to rest. Harry conjured up a glass of water for her while Ron transfigured a nearby boulder into a comfortable chair. She smiled at them gratefully, though no thanks were necessary between the three of them.

Eventually Hermione was ready to move on.

"Find Karkaroff for us, could you girl?" Harry asked his owl kindly.

Hedwig gave a small hoot, then began flying. They walked quickly beneath her, and, every once in a while, she would execute a small circle in the air so that they didn't fall too far behind. Harry guessed they were on a mountain, due to the lack of civilization and vegetation. After about a ten minute walk they came to a small run down shack in a quiet clearing. Harry pulled on the Invisibility Cloak, entered the shack, and quickly stunned Karkaroff. Ron and Hermione entered after him – Ron pulling out the Polyjuice potion. Hermione performed a medical spell she had discovered in one of the books they had picked up the first day in Diagon Alley that spelled the potion into his stomach. They watched in silence as Karkaroff slowly turned into Harry.

The three teens hesitated a moment before Ron pulled out another potion. Again Hermione spelled it into his stomach. It was a quick and painless death.

Ron picked up Karkaroff and Harry covered both of them in the Invisibility Cloak. First Hermione apparated back with Harry, then Karkaroff and Ron. Hedwig had already started the journey home.

Ron snuck into Diagon Alley with the body and dumped it there with a note they had created to throw suspicion off of Hermione and him. It read:

_He had us under the Imperious curse. We won't be coming back. We're sorry we couldn't stop him sooner._

They had left it unsigned. When Ron returned to the apartment he found Harry and Hermione sitting together in silence. "We did the right thing," he said quietly.

"He deserved it," Harry responded, just as quietly.

"We should tell ship," Hermione added flatly. Yet none of them moved for a long time.

They had done the right thing so why did it feel so wrong?

**A/N: Accept that no man is sane and the world will make sense.**

**Thanks to 9taileddestroyer and Lily Ginerva Hermione Potter for reviewing!**

**4/16/11**


	11. Adapting

**Chapter 11: Adapting**

They sat together in silence till the sun went down. Harry got up and fetched a piece of parchment and quill. He sat back down and looked at his brother and sister.

_Dear Ship, _he began. "What do we tell them?" He asked, still in a very quiet tone.

Hermione and Ron both looked up with blank expressions on their faces. "Tell them to ignore the paper," Hermione answered shortly in a quiet hoarse voice.

"And that we're fine," Ron added, obviously concerned about what his siblings would think.

_Dear Ship,_

_The paper isn't telling the truth. It's merely to get them off our back. We're fine._

_Your friends,_

_Will, Henry, and Jane._

Harry stared at the parchment for a while. "It's short."

Ron grunted in agreement but neither of them did anything. Eventually Harry put the short letter in an envelope and gave it to Hedwig, disguised as a barn owl.

They sat there for about an hour before Harry spoke again.

"We did the right thing. We can't stop our lives because we took his. This is a war," he said with conviction.

Ron shook his head a little, "James is right, we did what we had to do. I may regret the need to take a life, but we shouldn't regret the fact that we did."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Who knows how many people he killed? We're going to have to accept that people die in war, and this is war."

"Covert war," Harry said with a small smile, "just us and our circle of spies against the Death Eaters."

"We've totally got this," Ron joked. "We're unbeatable!" They all laughed a little.

"So yes, taking a life isn't something we should do if we have another option," Harry summed up, "but it's not unacceptable – sometimes it is necessary."

They sat for a short while longer. "It still feels wrong," Hermione stated quietly after about ten minutes.

"Yeah but, what was it you guys said to me? 'It'll take time to get over it'," Harry reminded her. "We can't just expect to get over it right away. So we continue on with our life, we can't change what we did."

"So what's the next step?" Ron asked.

"We need to decide who to include in the Warden's circle," Hermione stated matter-of-factly, putting Karkaroff's death out of her mind for now.

"I've been thinking Ron, and I think we should include your dad. He's got a lot of friends in the ministry."

"I understand, as long as I don't have to actually speak to him I think we'll be good. I've heard him talk about someone else I think we should invite, Amelia Bones, she's head of the Department of Law Enforcement."

"Alright," Harry had taken out the piece of paper with Moody's and Snape's names on it. He added Arthur Weasley and Amelia Bones to the list.

"What about other teachers?" Hermione asked. "I think we should add McGonagall and Flitwick."

Harry added their names to the list, "What about Remus, I think he could be useful – as long as I don't have to speak to him."

The others agreed. So far the list had seven names. They decided against Sirius, since he was an outlaw there wasn't much he could do to help. They also decided against Dumbledore, for one thing he had stated that he believed that Harry was evil, so if he received a message there was a chance he could trace it back to them. He didn't become the most powerful wizard by eating Muggle sweets. Harry was trying to convince Ron to allow his brothers to join.

"Bill and Charlie aren't even in England! Your parents may have been quoted in the paper but none of your siblings have – we already know that Ginny, Fred, and George don't believe it, why should Bill, Charlie or Percy!"

"Besides," Hermione added, "this isn't about whether or not they believe Harry is innocent, it's about changing society for the better."

"Alright," Ron finally conceded. "But Percy is practically obsessed with the Ministry, he's not going to help us. I say just Bill and Charlie."

"If Percy knows about Junior's capture then he'll be pretty shaken, if we can get him against the ministry now then he could be a major help," Harry insisted. "From what I've seen Percy is very loyal, unfortunately right now he's loyal to the Ministry. If we can change his mind and convince him that the Ministry isn't all that great then he can be loyal to _our_ side. He may still believe we're guilty, but we're not trying to convince him we're not. Technically _we_ aren't even involved."

Ron still looked uncertain.

"I know you didn't get along that well with Percy but James is right, if we can sway your brother's loyalties now then he'll be a valuable asset."

Ron nodded hesitantly, "All right, we'll add all three of them." He looked around the group, "Anybody else."

Harry couldn't think of anyone, he shook his head at Ron. Both of them looked at Hermione.

She spoke hesitantly, "No one in specific but I think it would be great if we formed an alliance with the goblins, as well as other underrepresented groups. I don't think we should do it now, because first we need to plan the Warden's Circle, but they could also help us a lot."

Ron nodded, "Goblins are tricky, so we'll definitely have to wait till we have more time to work on that, but if we're trying to change the world we need to represent the minorities." Harry saw him chance a glance at Hermione, though luckily she didn't see it.

"Alright," Harry said, looking at the list, "we'll need code names and phrases for each of these people.

* * *

It took about an hour, but eventually the deed was accomplished:

_Moody Eye The eye always spins. _

_Snape Chemist The bat flies silently._

_McGonagall Mistress Strict and stern works best._

_Flitwick Dueler Be gentle and kind._

_Bill Weasley Fang See the World while you can._

_Charlie Weasley Burn Save the earth._

_Arthur Weasley Inventor How does this work?_

_Percy Weasley Pencil Organization is key._

_Amelia Bones Lawyer Justice and truth prevail._

_Remus Lupin Scar Life is short, get out and live._

"Man it's harder than I thought to come up with code names and phrases," Ron complained.

"And we're just getting started," Hermione answered with a small smile.

They retired for the night and the next day they began working on the letters.

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait again but this time I have a valid excuse - I was on vacation. While on vacation I didn't have internet access but I was able to write so the next chapter should be up tomorrow.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Thanks to ChristianGirl56 for reviewing every chapter!**

**5/1/11**


	12. Letters

**Chapter 12: Letters**

_Dear ___,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as a member of the Warden's Circle. This is a prestigious group with only one main goal: to change the wizarding world as we know it. If you like the world as it is, ignore this letter, but tell no one you have received it. _

_As you may or may not have realized our main goal is rather broad. Naturally there are several minor goals under it. For one we wish to end prejudice for all minorities and underrepresented groups, including but not limited to: muggleborns, goblins, centaurs, werewolves, vampires, etc. We also wish to change the structure of the Ministry. We feel that it is corrupt and doesn't accomplish much these days. Not to mention that, with the lack of a prominent dark wizard, the Aurors have become less proficient then before._

_You have been selected to join this group based off of a combination of your talents and position within wizarding society – whether within the Ministry or not. _

_There are, however, a few rules if you decide to join this select society._

_1. You must not tell anyone. At all. This parchment has been specifically enchanted so that it can only be read by you, it's recipient. If you are worried that your acceptance of this invitation will interfere with your daily life you need not. Participation will be limited and minimal._

_2. You will be referred to by code name and must give your own personal code phrase, along with the main phrase, every time you send a letter, otherwise it will be suspected that someone has found out about our society, your position will be terminated, and any further mail you send will be considered a falsehood._

_3._ You must not tell anyone_. We cannot stress how important this rule is. If you accept, you will be joining a secret society, and, while not technically illegal, we doubt the Ministry would approve._

_If you chose to accept this invitation please send your reply to the Muggle post box address listed on the back of this parchment. In reply you will receive a letter with your code name and phrase, along with the main phrase. All participation is taken at your own risk._

_Sincerely,_

_The Wardens_

* * *

_Dear Wardens,_

_I have never heard of you, which I suppose is because you are a secret organization, but I am glad to accept your offer. I work within the Ministry (though I am sure you know that) and am regularly appalled by the blatant corruption within my very department. I am glad to see someone finally doing something and am more than willing to help._

_Sincerely,_

_Amelia Bones_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_I hope you realize that I couldn't help very much because I am currently stationed in Egypt. Other than that I agree though. The world needs to be changed. My family members are considered to be blood traitors. I am proud of that title, the prejudice against muggleborns needs to stop. If your trying to achieve goblin rights I would be careful however, they don't trust easily._

_Sincerely,_

_William Weasley_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_Thank you for the offer, I am busy during the year teaching, but I would be more than willing to do what I can to assist you._

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_. _

_Dear Wardens,_

_I will admit the Ministry has some faults, such as the prejudice you mentioned, nevertheless I will have you know that it is not as bad as you make it out to be. Of course there is corruption, in what government institution is there no corruption? Fortunately, within the Ministry there is no corruption in the higher levels. I myself have not been witness to any corruption, which almost makes me believe there is none within the fine establishment I am proud to call our government. If you are attempting to fix the little corruption there is within the Ministry then I would be proud to join your ranks._

_As for the Aurors being 'lax' I assume you are referring to their failed attempts to catch the convict Sirius Black as well as Potter's Death Eaters? I assure you all is being done to catch Potter and his cohorts. As for Sirius Black, a very capable Auror by the name of Kingsley Shacklebolt is handling his case._

_Thank you for sending me an invitation. I accept._

_Sincerely,_

_Percy Weasley_

_._

_Dear Wardens, _

_I am willing to join your organization. I don't know if I will be much help in my current position but I assume you wouldn't have chosen me otherwise._

_Sincerely,_

_Arthur Weasley_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_Thanks for the invite. I accept of course, but, as I'm in Romania, there isn't much I could do. Could dragons help? I doubt it. It might take a while for me to reply or receive any letters though – I'm kinda busy here._

_Sincerely,_

_Charlie Weasley_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_I assume you asked me because you have seen my dueling record? I must warn you that I'm not as young as I used to be. Nevertheless, if the tasks are as few as you say, I would be willing to join your group. I am a teacher now, so much of my time is filled, but I will be an active participant in what you require._

_Sincerely,_

_Filius Flitwick_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_I have thought out your offer long and hard and have decided to accept. I believe you are the type of group who would not have searched for members without first doing background checks but I still feel that I should inform you that I am a werewolf. If you feel that I would be a hazard to have around I understand and am willing to back out. If you are alright with my condition, then, again, I accept your generous offer._

_Sincerely,_

_Remus Lupin_

_._

_Dear Wardens,_

_I am a rather busy man. However, I believe in what you are trying to accomplish. I do have some doubts that you will be able to accomplish your goals, but I also believe that if any portion of your goal is accomplished that it will help nevertheless. _

_Therefore I accept your invitation._

_Sincerely,_

_Severus Snape._

_._

_I accept_

_-Alastor Moody_

* * *

_Dear ___,_

_Thank you for accepting your invitation. The names and phrases you should memorize are as follows:_

_Name: -__._

_Phrase:__ -._

_Main Phrase: Servo unus vita, servo mundi._

_We remind you again that you must not put your name on any of your letters, instead begin with your code name and phrase, and then finish with the main phrase. We will not read any letters without a code name and phrase at the top._

_Although all letters you will receive will be spelled so that only you can read it, since you do not know us you cannot do the same. Therefore there are a few other key words we would like you to memorize:_

_Ministry – monarchy_

_Minister Fudge – king_

_We will send further news when we have an assignment for you._

_Thank you,_

_The Wardens_

* * *

_Dear Will, Henry, and Jane,_

_What's wrong? __I __We saw the news, and we ignored it like you said. Did you cause that? Mom was rather upset when she realized you weren't coming home Will, but at least no one believes that you and Jane are responsible. Is that why you did it? Neville says you did it to stop the real Death Eaters from pretending to be your Death Eaters. I say it was a combination of those two ideas. We hope you're alright. Anything we can do?_

_Yours Truly,_

_SHP_

_._

_Dear SHP,_

_We apologize for the last letter, it was rather short. Yes, we did cause the news, and no, sorry, there's nothing you can do right now. Don't bother recruiting anyone because now they think Henry is dead, and it would take a lot of convincing to persuade someone otherwise. You must look appropriately upset that Will isn't coming back – though you know he's safe you musn't let anyone know you know. We have come up with a few more code words – in case anyone ever intercepts these letters._

_Death Eaters: Vultures_

_Voldemort: Basilisk_

_We also think you should find a more secret place to meet than an empty classroom, someone might stumble onto you. Maybe ask the house-elves?_

_Sincerely,_

_Jane, _Will, _**Henry**_

**A/N: Well another quick update - next one should be out in about a week.**

**Disclaimer: HP isn't mine**

**Thanks to Lily Ginerva Hermione Potter for reviewing!**


	13. Scheming

**Chapter 13: ****Scheming **

The next week was a flurry of letters back and forth, everyone accepted (though, typically, Moody's acceptance was the last to come in). They had sent out the invitations on fancy parchment to make it seem like they were wealthy – which they would be if the goblins let them access Harry's vault. All the letters they had sent to the Warden's Circle had been specifically enchanted by Hermione to prevent anybody but the intended recipient from reading the letter. This meant that if they told anybody that at least there would be no proof. Hermione was working on a spell to prevent them from talking about it, but she said it would be near impossible to do. Harry wasn't bothered – if anybody could find a solution Hermione could.

They had also run across another problem while doing their studies. One of the books they had picked up in Diagon Alley mentioned mind arts. Things called Occlumency and Legilimency. It hadn't been very detailed, but it sounded a lot like mindreading to Harry. He worried that their secrets could be found out very easily. The three of them were going to pick up some more books on it when they talked to the goblins but they couldn't force their members to learn it. He thought that some already knew it, such as Snape or Moody, but there was no way to be certain. For now they simply weren't going to tell their members much (not that they had planned on telling them a lot anyway).

Eventually they asked for a day off work and headed to Diagon Alley. Again nobody chanced a second glance at them; Harry found it rather nice for a change. Though he knew eventually their luck would change again. A sudden thought struck him.

"Guys, what happens when we go public?"

Hermione and Ron stopped suddenly, shocked by his train of thought. Hermione lead them over to the side of the alley so they wouldn't run into anyone while she contemplated his question.

"What do you mean 'go public'?" Ron asked meanwhile.

"Well eventually we're going to have to go out in the open, we can't change the ministry while undercover. We'll actually going to have to become known, get out there persuade the general public that our way of thinking is right, convince the ministry to change. But Moody and Snape-"

"They've already seen us," Ron concluded heavily, "so it doesn't matter whether or not we reveal ourselves as the Wardens. People will know that we've being doing undercover, or even illegal, work against the Ministry. They'll never side with us."

Both of them turned to Hermione, who was deep in thought. Noticing them waiting for her to speak she began hesitantly, "It shouldn't be too hard to convince them to remain quiet, I mean, Snape is a spy for us, so if he told anyone about what we did he'd have to explain how he knew that. Moody, well Moody seemed to believe in what we're doing, hopefully he'll agree to remain silent." She paused, thinking again. "Worst come to worst we could always change disguises."

"No," Harry spoke firmly. "We're not changing disguises, we have enough to remember already. No way are we changing our appearance and our names again."

Ron nodded in agreement.

"Do you have an idea James?" Hermione asked, looking at him thoughtfully.

He nodded. "Amy you're going to be the boss," when she started to interrupt him he held up a hand to stop her, "not literally of course, but that's what we want it to look like. It can't be Bill or I because we're twins and unless one of us pretended to be really stupid it would look weird if one of us held more rank than the other. So when we go anywhere, you'll be out in front and Bill and I will be on either side of you."

"Like bodyguards," Ron surmised quickly.

Harry nodded at him, glancing around the alley quickly to make sure no one was watching them, "When we go out in public you'll do all the talking Amy, Bill and I will just pretend to be hired muscle. That way it doesn't look like three people working together – it looks like one person trying to change the world, and, of course, the world doesn't want to be changed so she hired some old friends to be bodyguards."

"That could work," Hermione said, also looking around, "If we agree to do it we start now – who knows who might remember us."

Harry nodded a third time, "Yeah, definitely."

"We're really paranoid," Ron stated as he agreed with their plan.

"Perks of being an outlaw," Harry said quietly with a smirk.

"You've forgotten one thing though," Ron quickly pointed out the strategically error in their plan, "James is the one who talked to Moody, he knows we're not just body guards."

Harry thought for a moment, then stood up straight, "Ms. Stevenson was merely concerned for her safety, and allowed me to go in her stead sir."

"Brilliant James!" Ron exclaimed, clapping him on the back. Hermione nodded in agreement. "You just helped fine tune this plan!" Ron continued, obviously caught up in a light bulb moment.

"I did?" Harry looked puzzled.

"Of course you did! As Amy's bodyguards, we always refer to her as Ms. Stevenson, we always act polite, because we're just bodyguards, and she always calls us Redbird. That way it fits what you told Moody, that your name was Redbird, we never have to give anyone our first names, and it makes us seem stupid. Well, not really stupid," Ron amended, "or we wouldn't be any good at spells meaning we're not very good bodyguards, but Amy would seem like the planner – people might not underestimate our brawn, but they'll underestimate our brains."

"What brains?" Hermione joked.

"Hey!" They exclaimed together.

She laughed, "Seriously though, it is a good idea, servants and bodyguards are practically invisible to the upper class, as long as you don't talk too much we should be good. Ready to go?"

They nodded and fell in step behind her, one on either side. Two taller, identical, built (due to all their exercising) men on either side of a shorter woman. It could be an imposing sight if they wanted it to be, though right now they were just focusing on being invisible.

They had decided that, unfortunately, Diagon Alley wouldn't have anything on the mind arts – they were too obscure. That meant they had to head into Knockturn Alley. Harry secretly thought this was a small price to pay if it helped in the war against Voldement. If it didn't well…

Harry gave his head a slight shake and glanced around. It wouldn't do to not pay attention now, not here. Moody would be proud, he thought with a smirk.

Eventually they found a book store and headed inside. True to form Harry and Ron stayed behind Hermione as she approached the counter – each with a neutral expression on their face.

"What have you got on Occlumency?" Hermione demanded of the clerk. They had already decided what to say, the only difference was that now Hermione was the one that was saying it.

The clerk frowned but came out from behind the counter (after glancing at both Harry and Ron) and headed towards his stock. The three of them remained where they were, waiting for him to return. When he did he had a small stack of books in his hands. He placed them on the counter and headed behind it again.

"300 galleons," he announced sharply.

"50," Hermione retaliated quickly.

The clerk scowled, "200."

"75."

"150."

"You and I both know these aren't worth a knut over 100."

The clerk scowled again, glanced back at Harry and Ron, then held out his hand for the money. Hermione pulled out a bag that had 100 galleons in it and handed it to the clerk, then slipped all four books into her bag that she had placed the extendable charm on.

She headed out of the store without another word, Harry and Ron following, as they would be from now on. Once a safe distance from the store she smiled. "To Gringotts?"

They nodded in unison and set back off toward Diagon Alley.

**A/N: Next chapter is actually on time! Hopefully I'll keep this up.**

**Disclaimer: I think you know by now I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Thanks to Lily Ginerva Hermione Potter and emcee31 for reviewing!**


	14. Negotiating

**Chapter 14: Negotiating**

The plan was to allow Hermione to say everything. Of course, when do things ever go according to plan? As soon as they arrived at the counter Harry blurted out, "Griphook?"

The goblin in question looked up surprised, then narrowed his eyes when he realized he didn't know the speaker. Hermione leaned forward quickly to rectify the problem, "I'd like to request a private audience?" She spoke quietly and quickly, yet firmly enough to clarify that she wasn't someone to be messed with.

Griphook threw another glance at Harry then jumped off his stool, "Follow me."

The three of them quickly hurried after the shorter but faster goblin into a back room. Griphook sat behind the desk while the three of them sat in chairs facing him, Hermione in the middle of course.

Griphook spoke gruffly, "Who are you?" He directed the question at Ron, unsurprisingly getting the wrong twin.

Neither of the brothers answered however, "Mr. Griphook I would like to ask you a question," Hermione began, "And I in no way mean to offend you, I am simply unacquainted with goblin customs."

Griphook nodded at her to continue.

"I merely wish to clarify that you will keep this entire meeting secret, that you will not inform anyone of what occurs within this room today."

"You have my word," he stated, clearly interested, then quickly spoke again to clarify. "And for a goblin that is as good as an oath. Your secrets will remain with me."

Hermione nodded and sat back – effectively allowing Harry to take over. Griphook noticed the subtle change in their body language and shifted his attention to Harry.

"Hello," Harry spoke lightly, "I'm Harry Potter."

Griphook raised an eyebrow and looked from Harry to Hermione and back again. "Nice try, Harry Potter is dead," he stood up, not wanting to waste his time.

"Would a blood test change your mind?" Harry spoke lightly, with the air of one who knew exactly what he was doing.

The goblin sat back down slowly, "You would consent to that?"

Harry inclined his head, "I would."

"Very well," Griphook pulled out a black quill and parchment while he spoke, "this is a blood quill, when you use it, it draws blood from the back of the hand. All you have to do is sign your name."

Harry grabbed the quill without hesitation and quickly penned his name. He didn't wince when the words became etched on the back of his hand, and then faded quickly. "Will that do?"

Griphook seemed slightly shocked that Harry had agreed to it so quickly. He nodded then headed out of the room to verify the blood test.

The three friends waited in silence until Griphook returned. "It appears you were telling the truth Mr. Potter, may I ask how you knew my name?"

"You were the goblin who showed me to my vault."

"Few wizards would remember that."

"James isn't most wizards," Ron joked, giving a quick smirk.

Griphook shifted his attention to Ron, then back to Harry, "James?"

"My alias, as you know the wizarding world believes I have broken the law, run away, and then got murdered by my two best friends."

"We goblins do not pay attention to wizarding events, yet I admit I am curious, the wizarding world _believes_?"

"They are incorrect in their beliefs that I am a dark wizard."

Griphook raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on his bold statement, instead getting straight to business. "What is your business here?"

"We have already opened an account under the name Amy Stevenson," Hermione spoke this time, while Ron and Harry went back to their roles as bodyguards. "We would like to transfer all the money in the Potter vault to that vault."

"I will fetch your account manager," Griphook said shortly, leaving the room.

"He's not the most friendly," Hermione commented.

"That's goblins for you, they get straight to the point," Ron reminded her.

Griphook entered the room with another goblin, "Ronuk," he gestured at the other goblin in introduction.

Ronuk spoke up, "You are Amy Stevenson?"

"I am."

"Key?"

Hermione pulled the tiny golden key out of her pocket and handed it over to the goblin. After examining it the goblin returned it to Hermione.

"You wish to transfer all the funds in the Potter vaults to the Stevenson vault?"

"Yes, I would also like to – wait, vaults?"

"Yes," Ronuk pulled out a sheet of parchment, "The Potter family has two vaults, a trust vault and a family vault."

The three of them exchanged glances, communicating silently. Hermione nodded and continued her earlier sentence. "I would also like to know who has access to the Potter vaults."

"Currently the only one who has access to the Potter vaults is Harry Potter, though he cannot access the family vault until he is seventeen."

"That's it?" Hermione asked surprised, they had suspected otherwise.

The goblin raised his eyebrow, seemingly offended that they didn't believe him, "Yes," he continued irritably, "a Mr. Dumbledore did have possession of the key before Mr. Potter rejoined the wizarding world but no withdrawals or deposits have been made seen before the Potter's deaths."

"Very well," Hermione pulled a second key out of her pocket, "this is the Potter key, I wish to transfer only the funds in the trust vault."

Ronuk actually seemed shocked, "How did you get that?"

"What?" Hermione was confused, it was just a key.

"Only the owners of the vaults or a trusted friend can use a vault key, given the fact that Mr. Potter is dead, I'm asking how you received his key!" Ronuk appeared to be very upset, though that was understandable given the fact he believed Gringotts had just suffered a major security breach.

They had not anticipated this, not knowing about security charms placed on keys, but they had anticipated trouble. Therefore, Harry had written a note stating that he had left all his possessions, including his Gringotts key, to a Ms. Amy Stevenson. Hermione rummaged around in her bag before producing the parchment. "Will this do?" She handed it to the irate goblin.

Ronuk read the parchment carefully, then looked up, no longer angry. "Very well, I shall transfer all the money in the Potter trust vault to the Stevenson vault. Do you have any other business here?"

"No," Hermione stood, Ron and Harry standing simultaneously behind her, "that will be all thank you." She inclined her head in respect. Eyes widening both goblins did the same.

As they left the room Harry heard Ronuk speak to Griphook, "Those humans are different."

Griphook responded in an amused tone, "Yes they are."

Harry smiled to himself as they left the bank.

* * *

They walk home was quick and they were home shortly.

"Did you hear what he said?" Harry asked smiling, as soon as they were in the safety of their apartment.

"Yeah," Ron responded, smiling in return.

"So eventually we'll earn his trust, then ask him to join right?"

"How many times have we gone over this Amy?" Ron said exasperated.

"I'm just clarifying _William,_" Hermione replied frostily.

Harry interrupted yet another argument, "We still need to tell Moody we changed our position, we were going to do that today, remember?"

They had decided to wait a little while after Harry was 'killed' to tell Moody they had changed their philosophy in case Moody suspected that it was them who had killed 'Harry'.

Hermione nodded and went to fetch the sheet they used to communicate with Moody – though he hadn't written anything yet.

"What should we say?" Ron asked.

"That we changed our mind, we realized we couldn't win this war without some casualties."

"I know that, I was just wondering what exactly we're going to say."

"I dunno exactly, something like that I suppose."

"Something like what?" Hermione asked as she reentered the room with the parchment.

"Just that we couldn't win this war without casualties," Harry explained.

"That's fine," Hermione nodded in acceptance, "just don't say war because we told him we're vigilantes and he doesn't know Voldemort is back."

"Alright."

They debated the specifics a bit longer and then Hermione penned a quick note.

_Al – thought we'd let you know, we changed our minds, all fights have casualties, this one will be no different – Redbird _

The words faded into the paper and Hermione returned it to the Study Room.

**A/N: Sorry it's a little late, I was busy this weekend.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.**

**Thanks to Anime-Rosalie and emcee31 for reviewing!**


	15. Planning

**Chapter 15:**

Shortly after Hermione had left the room she screamed for Ron and Harry to join her. "Snape wrote something!" she exclaimed, very excited.

"I wonder why it took so long?" Ron pondered.

"It was probably very hard for him to do, I know I would be scared to death if I had to go spy on Voldemort," Harry rationalized.

"Not to mention he probably didn't like spying for Voldemort, because he has to participate, he can't just sit there and do nothing," Hermione added. "Anyways, let's just read it."

_Visited Voldemort, he believed me, nothing yet._

"That's it?" Ron asked, upset at how little Snape had written.

"Talking to Voldemort is no picnic, he might have been injured," Harry explained.

Ron deflated, "Oh, yeah." He paused. "So what do we tell him?"

"We thank him first," Harry reminded his friends, "he didn't have to do this."

"Of course," Hermione agreed, "we can also ask him if he requires any assistance."

Harry nodded. "We really don't have anything to tell him."

"He needs to use code words too though," this time it was Ron's turn to do the reminding, "I know only him and us have these papers but if this fell into someone else's hands we don't want them to know what we're up to."

"Or discover that Snape's a spy," Harry added, nodding in agreement.

"We can just tell him the same thing we told ship," Hermione suggested, "Voldemort is a Basilisk and the Death Eaters are Vultures."

Harry nodded again and picked up a quill, handing it to Hermione.

_Severus, _she began, _Thank you, I realize how difficult this is for you and I appreciate everything you are doing. If you ever require any assistance I am willing to help. Though I doubt it will ever occur, there is a possibility that this may fall into someone else's hands, therefore, when referring to Voldemort we ask that you write Basilisk and when referring to his Death Eaters we ask that you write Vultures. Thank you again, anything you ask for that is within my power I shall attempt to give it to you._

The message faded into the paper as she wrote it and soon enough there was no indication it had been written.

"Alright, I think we need to quit," Ron announced as soon as the words had finished fading.

"What?" Harry asked, startled, why did Ron want to stop now, they had accomplished so much?

Seeing his friends alarm Ron quickly corrected his wording, "I meant our jobs," he explained, "Amy can begin her cover and start going to the Ministry, trying to pass legislation and stuff. Now that we've got James' money we don't really need the jobs."

Harry found himself nodding in agreement a third time, "He's right you know," he spoke to Hermione, noticing her indecision, "we don't really need them, they were just to help pay for this apartment, now that we've got money we could buy a house."

"Alright, I just don't want to leave Chris hanging, he'd be losing three of his workers at once."

"We told him this would be temporary when he hired us, besides, it's been almost four months, he's hired several people since he hired us, he'll be fine."

"Alright," Hermione repeated. "Why don't we just buy a house?"

"I was just joking when I said that Amy."

"But it's a good idea," Ron jumped back into the conversation. "We should look for one with a basement and set up a whole base down there."

"Fine, what about the post office box though?"

"Keep it, we don't want to give anyone our address."

"So we're going house shopping tomorrow? And telling Chris we're leaving?"

Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Then we need to work on security for the house. My parents used something called the Fidelius Charm, can we use it too?" Harry directed his question at Hermione.

"From what I can remember Flitwick saying, it involves a secret that is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper, that way nobody else - not even the subjects of the secret themselves - can divulge the secret," Hermione recited. "But it's also supposed to be an immensely complex spell."

Harry and Ron were both deep in thought but it was Harry who spoke first, "But can the Keeper live at the location that's being kept secret?"

Hermione instantly knew what Harry was thinking about, "They can," she began gently, "but your parents probably didn't want to do that because if anybody ever needed to know where they lived they would have to leave the house in order to tell them. They probably didn't want to do that."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Ron voiced what he had been thinking about, "Does the secret have to be a location?"

"It doesn't say that, no. Why?" Hermione responded.

"Well if that Occu-thingy doesn't work out when can always use this."

"Yeah," Hermione conceded, "but this looks really complex," she said, leafing through the book she had grabbed on it when they were looking into wards, "I don't want to have to do it too often."

"Just a thought," Ron shrugged, "What other wards do we want for the house?"

"Well first just a proximity ward, to let us know if someone is approaching," Harry began while Ron nodded, writing it down.

"Is there any way of identifying whose approaching?" Ron asked.

"Well," Hermione thought for a moment, "the only thing I can think of is the Marauder's Map, if I can figure out what spells they used to make that we can create a map of our house and the grounds and put that in the basement."

Harry and Ron agreed quickly, "We can also enlarge the real map or a least make a replica and put that in the basement too," Harry added onto Hermione's idea.

"And if you can make another one we should do it, only of the Ministry," Ron stated, still expanding her idea. "That would really help." He wrote their ideas down as he spoke.

"We wouldn't even need code words, we'd know if their fake just by looking at the map," Hermione agreed with both of their ideas, nodding in excitement.

"Other wards?" Ron reminded them of their original problem.

"What other kinds of wards are there? I think we can use all we can get."

"We might not need that many wards if we use the Fidelius Charm."

Harry appeared confused, "Then why do we even need the Proximity ward?"

"Because we might let people know eventually where our HQ is so we want to know who's approaching," Hermione explained to them.

"HQ?" was Ron's only question.

"Headquarters, do wizards not use that expression?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head, amused, "No, I've never heard it."

"Anyways," Hermione continued, "We could put up a ward that determines whether the visitor has any ill intentions, and another ward that expels anyone with the Dark Mark, though we'll have to make an exception for Snape."

"But we'll never let Death Eaters know where we live, I mean, one of us will be the secret keeper and I know we'll never give it away, why are the wards important?" Harry asked again.

"It's just an extra safety precaution," Ron explained this time. "Just in case."

"Alright, which one of us is going to be secret keeper?"

"Well, if we have to use the Fidelius Charm for the Warden's Circle you're going to be the Keeper for that James so I think it should be Bill."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you would never give the location away, ever?"

"Neither would you Amy."

"Well you get this one, if we need to use it a third time I'll take it."

"Let's hope that never happens," Harry joked. "Wouldn't want too many secrets now would we?"

The three of them spent the rest of the time going over the Fidelius Charm. They made a list of all the potion ingredients that they didn't have and would need to purchase. It was an immensely complex spell and they decided that they would wait to purchase a house until they had memorized the charm and completed the potion. They also worked up a cover story. Hermione was an orphan who was in foster care (since it wouldn't be suspicious if paper work was missing), when her foster parents had passed away (being quite old) she moved in with Harry and Ron, two friends from school. Harry and Ron were the heirs to a very big fortune, and their parents had just died in a car accident. The three of them had gotten a job at the restaurant and an apartment while they waited for legal transactions that would allow them to take control of their fortune. Now that the legalities were finished the three of them were house hunting. They went to bed that night feeling a sense of satisfaction in how much they were accomplishing.

**A/N: Wow, I actually am keeping to the schedule! **

**Disclaimer: Do I have to say it again? I don't own Harry or his friends.**

**Thanks to emcee31 and SunshineGirl96 for reviewing! Also a thanks to all those who have favorited and alerted this story!**


	16. Searching

**Chapter 16: Searching**

They awoke Sunday morning and immediately headed to the office of the apartment to use the pay phone (seeing as they didn't have a phone of their own). Harry and Ron waited outside as they listened to Hermione talk to their boss.

"How'd it go?" Harry asked as they left the building.

"Just fine, he was upset but he understood when I said we were moving."

"I take it you didn't tell him we're staying in London?" Ron asked with a smirk.

"Not at all," Hermione answered mischievously.

Despite the fact that Hermione's parents had helped them get drivers licenses they didn't have a car, so they walked everywhere. None of them minded though, it helped them keep in shape. This time they were looking for a real estate office.

Eventually they found one and entered, unconsciously playing their roles by allowing Hermione to take the lead. She spoke to the receptionist, who then directed them to an office down a hallway.

The real estate agent was nice enough, giving them a list of all the houses for sale in the area with basements.

"And we can just visit these?" Hermione asked, looking through the folders.

"Yes, typically an agent accompanies the interested party, we don't generally give away keys," the agent responded.

"Are there any agents available today?"

"No, not many people come to the office on Sunday, you're lucky we're open today."

"So when can we come in?"

"I'll set you up with one of our agents for tomorrow, is that alright?"

Hermione nodded.

"Do you want to visit all of these," the agent indicated the stack of folders in Hermione's hands.

"Can we have a minute to look through of these?"

The agent nodded and left the room.

"Do we really need to eliminate some?" Ron asked. "We can just alter the one we pick."

"Yeah, but it'd be better if we don't have too, that undetectable extension charm is rather difficult."

Ron agreed and they soon eliminated all houses without three bedrooms and at least two bathrooms. Realizing they didn't want a mansion or anything too big they then got rid of anything with more than two floors (not including basement) and more than six bedrooms.

"Five houses," Hermione stated, "we should be able to do that in one day."

The others nodded their agreement.

They sat in silence until the agent reentered the room, not wanting to talk about magic in public. When she reentered they quickly finished up their business and left, agreeing at a time and place to meet.

* * *

When they got home they began to read the books they had gotten on Occlumency.

Hermione shook her head, "We can learn this ourselves, but there's no way we can get the Warden's Circle to learn this, and there's no Occlumency spell we can use to just protect a certain thing in the mind."

Harry and Ron both closed their books. "Is there any kind of Occlumency spell?" Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head again, "Occlumency is completely mental, the only spell mentioned in this book is for Legilimency and involves invading the mind, not protecting it."

Ron nodded, "Yeah that was mentioned in this book too."

"Can we do some modified version of a Memory charm?" Harry questioned, thinking hard, "Instead of erasing the memory we just protect it? Memory charms are all mental right?"

"That might work," Hermione conceded, "but it would take a lot of work. Memory charms aren't classified as Dark Magic but they're severely restricted. You can learn _Obliviate_ but the books hardly mention any theory on it. We'd have to research it thoroughly and then we'd have to experiment."

"Alright, no Memory charm, I really don't want to test it out on innocent Muggles."

"What about a kind of taboo?" Ron asked.

"That wouldn't work either," Harry spoke up, then let Hermione explain.

"We could taboo the words Warden's Circle, though it would take a lot of work, but that would be kind of pointless. People could still write the words and they could talk about it without saying the name. Plus, if we did a taboo, we would have to make it only alert us when someone says something; otherwise we wouldn't be able to say it."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"Guess it's the Secret Keeper charm then," Harry spoke, "you'll be Keeper Amy?"

"Me? I thought we agreed you would do it?"

"I thought about it though and I'm the leader so it would be kind of obvious."

"But you're not going to go public," Ron contradicted him, "Hermione's going to be the one who's out there working. Besides, no one would expect someone's bodyguard to be the Secret Keeper."

Harry thought about it, "I guess," he finally conceded.

"What are you so worried about, you would never give our secrets away."

Harry shrugged, "I dunno, I'm just worried."

"Well don't."

"I do have a question though, is there any way to cancel a Secret Keeper charm?"

"Well," Hermione began, going into lecture mode as Harry and Ron shared a grin, "the Fidelius charm is mainly only used for locations. So if the subject of the secret died the charm would also die. I suppose our subject is an organization, so if we disband I imagine that the charm would die. The Fidelius charm also loses effect if the Keeper dies, because then everyone who has been told becomes a Keeper. Since I don't think either of those options are ones we want to consider the only way would be for you to tell the world, put it in the news or on the radio. If you personally tell everyone it's no longer a secret." She shrugged, "I would assume there is a way to actually cancel the spell but I've never heard of one."

Harry took a second to process what she said and then spoke up, "How complicated is it exactly?"

"Complicated," Hermione stated matter-of-factly, "You know how some potions take a long time and have to wait or be brewed on the full moon or things like that?"

The brothers nodded.

"Well this potion doesn't have anything like that, in fact it has the opposite, it has to be brewed in under three hours and used in under three days or else it becomes useless. Not to mention the ingredients are extremely volatile and have to be added in the exact amount the recipe says."

Harry stood up and went over to the bookshelf, pulling out the book that mentioned the Fidelius charm. Hermione and Ron watched as he found the page and began looking over the potion.

"You're right, but we've learnt that preserving charm so we should be able to prepare most of these ingredients beforehand."

"Most?" Ron asked.

Harry pointed to something on the page, "Both the Ashwinder eggs and the Fluxweed are too volatile to have any magic cast on them at all, it would completely ruin the potion. Even if we cast the preserving charms on the bottles instead of the ingredients – which is what we're going to do – it would still ruin it. Luckily we don't have to do anything with the eggs other than put them in the potion."

"But why can't we just cast magic on them?"

"Bill, have you been paying attention during potions at all?" Hermione scolded him.

Ron looked down embarrassed, "Not really, it never really interested me."

"It's alright," Harry shot Hermione a look, "Amy's the only one who does History, though I don't see why." Both Harry and Ron chuckled while Hermione sent them a disapproving look. "Anyway, the reason we cut ingredients and measure them manually is because magic leaves residue on the ingredients which would alter the potion. In some simple potions that's not that big of a deal because the outcome isn't altered that much but in something this complex we need to be very careful."

"Whoa mate, you sounded like Amy there for a moment!"

"And that's a bad thing?" Hermione glared at Ron.

"Not at all," he said quickly, "just pointing out the similarities."

"We have most of the ingredients," Harry interrupted, reviewing the book again, "though we're running short on Belladonna and we need Moonstone, which will be hard to find, and Ashwinder eggs, again, hard to find."

"Can we get them today?"

"I don't see why not, but I don't think we'll find Ashwinder eggs in Diagon Alley, they're not a very popular potions ingredient. Oh, and we also need powered horn of the Romanian Longhorn dragon – that'll be expensive."

"Then let's go," Ron said.

**A/N: Sorry it took so long, I've been extremely busy. **

**Disclaimer: It's not mine.**


	17. Brewing

**Chapter 17: Brewing**

The three of them made a quick trip to both Diagon and Knockturn Alley, buying the ingredients they didn't have and stocking up on the ones they were almost out of. They then spent the next three hours casting preserving charms on all sorts of containers and vials and filling those containers with the exact amount of ingredients needed, three Jobberknoll feathers, ten nettles, and so on. The Ashwinder eggs were kept in the freezer, which had been emptied of all food and turned on high, while the Fluxweed was on the counter. All of their potions supplies had been moved into the kitchen so that they were on hand while they made the potion. The cauldron had been filled halfway with water, which was kept at a constant temperature.

Ron was in charge of making sure the fire under the cauldron changed according to the instructions. Hermione was in charge of stirring the potion in the correct way at the correct times after certain ingredients were added. Harry was adding the ingredients.

He held the first ingredient above the cauldron. "Wait, shouldn't we put up some safety precautions?"

Hermione started, "Oh, I feel so stupid! We were focusing on making the potion we weren't worrying what would happen if anything went wrong!"

"Well, I grabbed some Burn-Healing and Bruise-Healing Pastes," Ron spoke up, pulling them out of his pocket.

"Good thinking," Harry nodded at his brother, "but we should still put up some protections."

"Just put it up around the room," Hermione reminded them, "try not to cast too close to the ingredients or the cauldron."

They nodded and quickly set wards up around the room, ensuring nothing would be too badly damaged (though you never know what can happen with a potions explosion). They also cast a protection charm on the book that listed the instructions and ingredients, so that no stray sparks would make it illegible, wasting their time and ruining the potion.

"Why don't they do this to all books?" Harry wondered aloud as he cast a charm to keep the pages from ripping.

"Charms wear off," Hermione answered simply and absentmindedly while double and triple checking all of their wards around the room.

"Most people do cast charms on their books when they first get them, but it becomes a pain to keep doing it over and over," Ron explained, seeing Hermione was too busy to do it herself. "Plus the magic itself wears out the books. That's why Mum always sewed our clothes instead of fixing them magically."

"But aren't there things like Permanent Sticking Charms and stuff?" Harry asked, "Why can't they apply those kinds of magic to these?"

Both Ron and Hermione stopped working, "I guess because no one ever thought of it," Hermione answered with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Ron, noticing everyone was getting distracted, quickly took charge, "Anyway, that's an idea for another time, we need to focus on the potion. How much is this going to make?"

"More than enough, the book says most people just throw away the leftovers since it can't be used past three days, but we should have enough to use it twice. Are we ready?" Hermione answered, directing her last question at Harry.

Harry nodded and positioned his hand over the cauldron again. He looked around, Hermione and Ron nodded back at him. "Here we go," he mumbled to himself, then dropped the Jobberknoll feathers in.

Hermione quickly stirred it three times counter clockwise while Ron increased the fire slowly. Harry grabbed the Lacewing Flies and added them one by one as Hermione slowly stirred eight times clockwise, one fly for each stir. While Hermione stirred he quickly grabbed the Fluxweed and chopped it to the specific requirements, dumping it in the potion at the same time as the Armadillo Bile. He then grabbed the Ashwinder eggs from the freezer as Ron rapidly increased the temperature of the fire, throwing them in at the exact moment the cauldron flared. They all hesitated for a moment, if the Ashwinder eggs were rotten the cauldron was sure to explode, but nothing happened and they quickly got back to work.

So it went for two hours and twenty-six minutes until Harry dropped in the dried nettles, Hermione gave a quick clockwise stir, and Ron let the fire die.

Together the three of them dropped into the chairs they had placed a short distance from the cauldron. Ron was the first to speak, "Did it work?"

Hermione looked over at the book, "It appears to be the same color as the book describes, but there's only one way to find out." The potion was a light blue, with swirls of white appearing throughout. "We're supposed to let it sit for at least three minutes before using it."

"Not a problem," Harry said, leaning back in his chair to finally relax, "We haven't even picked a house yet."

"I can't imagine anyone doing this alone," Ron finally said after they had rested a bit. "It was hard enough with the three of us."

"Not to mention, we're lucky we know each other so well, few groups of people would have been able to coordinate like that," Hermione reminded them.

There was a thoughtful silence as they each digested what they had just accomplished and then Harry stood up. "I'm tired," he announced, "I'm going to shower and then I'm off to bed."

Hermione and Ron watched in tired silence as he headed off into the bathroom, then Hermione stood up too, "He's right, it's late and we have to meet with that estate agent tomorrow, do you mind if I shower first?"

Ron shook his head, "Go ahead, Harry'll be quick."

* * *

They spent the next day with the estate agent, going in and out of houses, trying to find the one that would suit their needs the best. Eventually they picked one and headed to the estate office to finalize it.

The house they had picked had four bedrooms and two bathrooms – very similar to the apartment – all but one bathroom upstairs. One the first floor was a kitchen, dining room, the other bathroom, a study, and a sitting room. The entrance to the basement was actually through a trapdoor in the study, and the basement itself was basically just a concrete room.

After finalizing the papers the three of them began the walk back to their apartment to get the few things they hadn't put in Hermione's extended bag.

**A/N: Sorry it's late, I've been really busy lately.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JKR does.**


	18. Dreaming

**Chapter 18: Dreaming**

As they approached the apartment Harry tensed and hesitated. Ron gave him a questioning look but Harry just shrugged and starting walking again. Hermione eyed them both curiously but followed them without speaking. As soon as he entered the apartment Harry knew something was wrong. He spun around to face the hallway, pulling out his wand as he went.

Ron, realizing Harry thought something was wrong, quickly joined him as they both stepped in front of Hermione.

Not three seconds after they entered the apartment a dark, cloaked figure came out of one of the bedrooms and into the hallway.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled, quickly stunning the figure, "Let's go! Apparate!" He shouted again, knowing that anyone else in the apartment would have been alerted by his stunning spell. Together the three of them grabbed hands and Hermione apparated them to a park near their newly bought house.

"Who was that?" Ron exclaimed in shock as they landed haphazardly on the grass. Luckily the park was empty and no one was around to hear Ron yell.

"Talk later," Harry said, "we need to go now!" He ran off toward the house, not bothering to see if his friends were following. After a shared glance Hermione and Ron picked themselves up and followed behind him. He skidded to a stop at the front door and immediately ordered Ron to put up a temporary Proximity Alert Ward.

"What? The one hour one?" Ron asked, confused.

"Yes!" Harry told him, turning to Hermione, "Where's the potion?"

"Why do you need it now?"

"Just trust me!"

Hermione did, and began searching her bag for the potion. Meanwhile Ron came over, having moved to the front yard to set up the ward. "What's going on? Did you know who that was James?"

Harry ignored his questions, "No time! Do you remember your part of the spell?"

Ron nodded mutely and Harry looked to Hermione.

She pulled out the potion and stretched her hand out to Ron, not yet letting go of it. "Remember, I say my part of the spell then you say yours, then you say the secret. In this case it's the address. Immediately after that you drink this vial, I've already counted out the correct amount of potion."

"Alright," Ron nodded in agreement and reached out to grab the vial.

"Hold on," Harry grabbed the bag Hermione had set down and pulled some parchment, ink, and a quill out. "Write down the address so that Amy and I can enter right away."

Ron scribbled down the address while Hermione pulled out her wand and began her part of the spell.

Five minutes later Ron drank the potion and the house vanished from view. Harry took a quick look at the parchment, handed it over to Hermione, and then pulled the two of them into the house. Once inside the empty house he glanced around, sighed in relief, and then leaned up against the hallway wall.

"Now can you tell us what's going on?" Ron asked impatiently, shutting the door and turning to Harry.

"I think that was a Death Eater," Harry said seriously.

"Back in the apartment?" Hermione questioned, "How do you know that?"

"Well," Harry hesitated and brought his hand up to his forehead, "my scar had hurt earlier today."

Both Hermione and Ron looked shocked. "Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione demanded.

"But he wasn't near us? Was he?" Ron asked, worried.

"I don't think so," Harry answered Ron's question first, taking his hand off his scar. "Dumbledore said that I felt when he was angry, but, well, it didn't feel like he was angry."

"You mean you can tell what he is feeling?" Hermione asked.

"You're reading Voldemort's mind!" Ron exclaimed, shocked.

Harry shook his head, "No, I think it's just his mood. Now that he's more powerful I'm getting more from him." He winced and his hand flew back up to his scar.

"What is it this time?" Ron asked.

"Definitely angry," Harry grimaced.

"Those must have been Death Eater's then," Hermione said, agreeing with Harry's earlier statement, "that's why he's angry."

Harry nodded, rubbed his scar, then brought his hand back down. "I think, earlier, that he was happy."

"Happy?" Hermione questioned.

Ron nodded, "It makes sense, they found out where we were living. I just want to know how."

Together the three of them contemplated, how had Voldemort known?

"He must know I'm still alive."

"But he can't track us, we put up precautions against that, remember?" Ron reminded them.

"We put up precautions against people tracking _us_," Hermione corrected him, coming to a sudden realization, "not against people tracking our apparition. Voldemort must have been looking for Karkaroff too."

"So he knew where Karkaroff was," Harry began.

"Must have, he's got way more advanced tracking spells than us," Ron contributed.

Harry nodded and continued, "Went there, found our apparation trail, and followed it back to our apartment. Why did it take so long though?"

"Tracing an Apparation trail takes time," Hermione said, deep in thought, "but they could have done it."

"So, what do we do about it?"

"Can we put up anti-tracking spells when we Apparate?"

Hermione nodded, "We could also just Apparate from here instead though."

"I was thinking we could put up anti-Apparation wards though."

"Those are tough," Ron said, "and that would take a while. But we can key ourselves into the wards."

The other two looked at him.

"What? Bill's a curse breaker."

Hermione nodded again in agreement and turned to Harry, "What I want to know though, is why you didn't tell us your scar hurt earlier?"

Harry shrugged and looked slightly uneasy, "It didn't seem like that big of a deal, it twinges all the time."

"James, this is a big deal, you're seeing parts of Voldemort's mind!" Hermione told him, Ron nodding in agreement.

Harry grimaced at that thought, "Alright, I'll tell you from now on, okay?"

"Has anything else unusual happened?"

"Well," he hesitated.

"_James!_" Hermione scolded him.

"I've been having weird dreams, they're all with me just walking down a corridor to a door," he shook his head, "I don't know why but I really want that door to open."

"I don't think that's you James," Ron said cautiously.

"Bill is right, I think you're in Voldemort's mind."

"Like when I dreamt about him last year?"

"When you fell asleep in divination?"

Harry nodded, "And over the summer. But those were harder to remember, I have these dreams almost every night, and, despite the lack of detail, they're very clear."

"Well, it's like you said James, he's getting stronger."

"Does Occlumency help?" Hermione asked.

"No, but we did just start. Why is it such a big deal though, I mean it can alert us to what he's planning."

"He is right," Ron said reluctantly.

"I will admit that could help, but, well, I just don't like the feeling of this," Hermione said uneasily.

"Amy," Harry said simply, "we can't do anything about it, and it doesn't seem like a bad thing, why are you worried?"

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head in frustration.

"Do you think we can go back to the apartment?" Ron spoke up, changing the topic.

"No," Harry and Hermione spoke in unison. "It's not safe," Harry explained.

"Why?" Hermione asked, "I would have thought you knew that."

"Yeah, but we hadn't moved the animagus potion yet, so now we have to remake it."

Hermione groaned, "That took three months to make! It was almost ready!"

"We'll be able to remake it."

"I know, I just don't want to," Hermione replied simply, "back to Voldemort, what are we going to do?"

Harry shrugged, "There's nothing I can do except keep practicing Occlumency, though I don't know if that will do anything."

Hermione shook her head, "Not about that, we've talked about Voldemort a bit but we've mainly just prepared to fight him by learning magic. What do we even have?"

"He's found some way to make himself immortal," Ron inputted.

"But we have no idea how," Harry reminded her. "We've been looking and we haven't found anything."

"We can ask Chemist, Eye, and Fang if they have any ideas," Ron suggested, "but I think we're going to have to go back into Knockturn Alley."

"Alright, we'll send letters, if there is nothing in the replies we'll just have to go back to the Alley."

**A/N: Sorry about the long wait, I forgot to mention last time that I was going on vacation and had no time to write. Anyway, I'm back! If anyone can give me a realistic address for a house in London (since I'm American and have no idea how tha works) I would appreciate it for later.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP.**

**Thanks to TwilightEclps and TellaBells for reviewing!**


	19. Relaxing

**Chapter 19:**** Relaxing**

The three of them conjured sleeping bags and slept together on the sitting room floor that night, taking a break for the first time in a long time. Together they sat on the floor, laughing and joking about their adventures together. Ron contributed tales of the twins' antics and Harry made them laugh by giving examples of Dudley's stupidity. Hermione's good memory helped her remember almost every moment that had made them laugh together, and she repeated them with a smile. They fell asleep laughing, and awoke the next morning in a good mood.

"Let's not do anything today," Harry spoke sleepily, sitting up.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Let's just stay home, have a good time, and decorate," Harry explained. "Let's _make _this place home."

"We deserve it," Ron added, sitting up next to them, "I don't know how long it's been since we haven't been practicing magic or planning the Warden's Circle or brainstorming about Voldemort's immortality. Let's take a break."

Hermione, always the strictest of the three, hesitated, "I don't know, we still have so much to do." Despite her hesitance, she seemed to agree, and Harry knew it wouldn't be hard to persuade her.

"Amy," he began, then paused, "Hermione," he said simply, using a name no one had heard for a long time, "we need this," he paused again. "You need this."

It was the use of her name more than anything that convinced her on the first go, and she nodded in agreement. "Alright, but we do have to decorate this house, even if we do nothing else today, understand?"

She spoke like a stern mother and the two boys smiled at each other before nodding in agreement, "We understand," they said in unison.

She smiled and stood up, "Good, now let's go get something to eat."

Together the three of them trooped into the kitchen and Hermione began pulling all the food they had left over out of her bag. Harry and Ron walked back and forth throughout the kitchen from the fridge they had bought directly after buying the house to the cupboards lining the walls above the counter. Harry instructed them to leave out the ingredients for pancakes and conjured up a frying pan and mixing bowl, along with the proper utensils.

"We would save a lot of time if we had a house-elf," Ron remarked as he opened the fridge, then, realizing what he had said, he paused in his task and turned to Hermione. "Sorry Amy," he spoke quickly, expecting her to be angry.

"It's alright," Hermione responded, not looking up from searching through her bag, "I've been doing some research and it turns out house-elves get their magic by being bonded to wizards."

"What about Dobby?" Harry asked, getting into the conversation as he leaned against the counter.

"Well he's still working for others isn't he?" Hermione asked rhetorically, looking up now that she was sure she had gotten everything out of her bag. "So technically he's bonded in the loosest sense of the term."

"Why don't we get Dobby to work for us?" Ron asked, "I mean, we can pay him right?"

"Of course," Harry agreed, "But what happened to your crusade for house-elf rights Amy?"

"Well I realized I can't free them," she responded with a shrug, "but I'm still going to give them more rights when we get to work at the ministry."

Together the three of them began to cook their breakfast, discussing exactly what kind of rights house-elves – and other species – should have. Ron told them what he knew about house-elves and their magic while Hermione told them what she had read in books. Harry convinced them to ask Dobby to help them and also ask for a second house-elf who can deliver messages. As they finished eating Harry called for Dobby who joined them with a pop.

"Harry Potter!" Dobby squealed with wide eyes as he appeared. He ran at Harry and hugged his legs. "Dobby had hoped you was not dead Harry Potter. Dobby knows you is no killer!"

Harry smiled, "Thanks Dobby," it was good to see his old friend.

Dobby let go of his legs and stepped back. "What can Dobby do for Harry Potter?" He asked excitedly.

"We were wondering if you would work for us," Harry explained, gesturing to his friends.

"Of course! Dobby would be delighted to work for yous!"

"How much do you get paid at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked kindly.

"Dobby does not need to be paid by Harry Potter," Dobby said fervently, shaking his head. "Harry Potter freed Dobby. Dobby would be honored to work for him."

"Well first off we have a question Dobby," Harry began.

"We were wondering if you know of any other house-elves who are being," here Ron hesitated, searching for the right word, "told to punish themselves by their owners," he finished, completing Harry's inquiry.

"We want to purchase them," Hermione added, saying purchase like it was a bad swear word.

"Well," Dobby hesitated like he always did when talking about the Malfoys, "my old masters had another elf. Her name bes Tilly." He looked shyly up at Harry, but it was Hermione who answered.

"We'll be sure to write a letter to the Malfoy's then," she gave a pointed look at both Ron and Harry, as though they would forget to write the letter.

Harry nodded, agreeing with Hermione, before turning back to Dobby, "Can you paint all the rooms in the house except for the basement and three bedrooms with an off-white or beige color?" He asked politely, having been informed on the capabilities of house-elf household magic earlier by Ron.

Dobby nodded and snapped his fingers.

"Excellent," Harry beamed. "That makes our lives so much easier, you can have the fourth bedroom upstairs, decorate it however you want."

Dobby's eyes swelled with tears at the praise and the offering, "Harry Potter is too kind," he squeaked, hugging Harry again.

Harry shifted uncomfortably and waited for Dobby to get off him, "We're going to go upstairs to paint our rooms – have fun decorating alright?"

Dobby nodded silently and the three of them trooped out the kitchen and up the stairs. When they came to the first unpainted room Harry and Ron instantly voted to give it to Hermione since it had a window seat that one could sit and read at. She pulled the paint she had selected earlier – a pale blue – out of her bag, along with three paintbrushes. Together they got to work painting the room together, though in the end all three of them were covered in paint, having had several paint fights. Laughing they pulled out their wands and vanished the paint off themselves. Hermione cast a fast drying spell and the room was finished. They then repeated the process, laughing and having fun together, in Ron's room – he had selected a vivid orange, very similar to his room at the Burrow. Noticing it was noon – and smelling something from the kitchen – they went downstairs to discover that Dobby had cooked them grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.

After eating an excellent lunch, and giving their compliments to the chef, they went upstairs again to finish Harry's room – which was to be a deep green, but not quite dark, almost the color of his eyes. As they finished they headed downstairs to the study, laughing and joking about better times. They examined the trapdoor to the basement and the ladder beneath it. Harry headed down to examine the actual basement. It was just a large concrete room, there was nothing in it, and it was rather bland. Shortly after he had climbed down Ron and Hermione followed.

"We conjured up a rug," Ron told him as he looked around.

"Do you have the Marauder's Map with you James?" Hermione asked, as she too looked around.

"Yeah, but we can't just duplicate it can we, eventually the copy will disappear right?"

Hermione nodded, "We're going to have to study it, create another, then create one for the Ministry."

Ron looked at her in surprise, "It probably took them a year to make that," he gestured at the map Harry had pulled out of his pocket, "we don't have that kind of time."

"But we have an example to work from, they had to make up all the spell combinations themselves," Hermione countered.

"Besides," Harry added with a smile, "we have Amy."

Ron laughed, "True, that is an advantage."

They began to examine the map, trying to determine exactly what spells the Marauders had used to create the masterpiece that they had used to plan pranks. Spells for secrecy, spells for identifying people – and revealing disguises, spells that adapted to the changes of the castle, all were part of the complex combination of spells that worked just right.

"This is genius," Hermione exclaimed after they had been working for over an hour.

"But we're done right?" Ron asked anxiously, looking up from where he had been listing the spells they had discovered.

"Yes, we've got all of them," Hermione said reviewing her notes, "Now we just need to create a surface big enough to create a map of our own, I don't want to have to unfold it every time we need to look at it."

Harry chuckled as he got up and searched through Hermione's bag, "Yeah, that would be a nuisance."

"What are you looking for?" Ron asked puzzled.

"Parchment," Harry responded, "We can charm it all together." He looked up as he pulled sheets of parchment out of the bag.

"James, charms don't last," Hermione said hesitantly, clearly questioning what he was doing.

"Permanent sticking charm?" Harry asked, "Those charms we read about? I figured we could just stick all of the pieces next to each other on the wall then draw the map." He held up the parchment.

Hermione lit up at the prospect of learning a new spell and instantly started going through her bag, looking for the correct book. Ron and Harry shared a look and began planning exactly how much parchment they would need and where they would put it on the wall. They wanted to make sure they had enough room for both the Hogwarts map and the Ministry map on the same wall. Both of them laid out the parchments.

"Ready Amy?"

"Yeah," she responded, "first I'm going to charm them to stick together, then I'll charm them to the wall."

"Whatever works," Ron responded with a shrug.

Soon the parchments were on the wall, stuck together and ready to become a map.

"Do we just cast the spells?" Harry asked, looking at the list they had assembled.

Hermione nodded and the three of them began casting the spells, alternating one at a time. Hermione, Harry, Ron, then over again until the map was complete.

"Well," Ron said, sitting down on the floor, "one down, one to go."

Again they laughed, like they had done so many times that day already.

Harry sat down next to Ron, "We need to get some furniture in here, can't we just conjure it instead of waiting to go to the store?" he asked tiredly.

Hermione too sat down, "Conjuring up comfortable furniture is hard," she responded, "I'd like to see you do it."

"No thanks," Harry said with a chuckle, "I'm too tired right now."

"We'll go shopping tomorrow or later," Hermione reminded him.

"Can we go now?" Ron asked, "I don't want to sleep on the sleeping bags tonight – they weren't very comfortable."

Hermione glared at Ron but answered in the affirmative. Harry got up and searched through the bag again, pulling out three pepper-up potions.

"I know we're not sick but it should help us get some energy back," he explained as he handed one to Hermione and one to Ron.

Together the three of them downed the potions and headed back up the ladder. Harry – being the last one up – closed the trapdoor and pulled the rug over it. Making sure they were all appropriately dressed they headed out into the Muggle world to shop for furniture.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Thanks to Anime-Rosalie for reviewing!**


	20. Hiring

**Chapter 20: Hiring**

As they opened the door later that evening, all the furniture shrunk and carefully stowed away in their bag, they were greeted by Dobby – who quickly informed them he had dinner ready in the kitchen. They all expressed their thanks and Hermione pulled the shrunken table out of the bag, along with the six chairs that had come with it. When the table set had been brought back to regular size in the dining room the three of them sat down as Dobby served them a delicious dinner.

As they all inhaled the meal they discussed their alibi again. Together they were going to go to the Ministry to take the N.E.W.T.s, if they wanted Hermione to get hired they needed to give them a good reason to hire them. For now they intended to begin the in Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

After the meal they began distributing the furniture, a bed and a desk in each room; a desk and a bookshelf in the study; a couch, chair, and coffee table in the sitting room; a couch, large desk, and bookcase in the basement.

"Well, it's a lot better than before," Hermione commented as they headed off to bed, "but it's not home yet."

* * *

The next day they got up very early and dressed in their best robes. Together they Apparated to the visitor's entrance of the Ministry of Magic. They squeezed inside the telephone booth that served as the entrance and dialed 6-2-4-4-2. Hermione quickly told the voice their names and that they were here for their N.E.W.T.s. The pay phone spat out three badges, all saying N.E.W.T. student.

The three of them pinned the badges to their shirt as the booth descended into the depths of the Ministry. Though the booth was cramped they managed to step out of it in formation – Hermione in the front. When they got to the security desk, instead of presenting their wands, they presented cleverly charmed sticks that looked exactly like wands. This was the most crucial part of the process; if the charmed sticks couldn't fool the sensor then their whole plan went up in smoke. For this reason Hermione and Ron presented their wands first, as it would be better if they were caught sneaking in to the Ministry then if the Ministry realized Harry was alive. Luckily their fake wands were accepted and they headed down the elevator to the Wizarding Examinations room – specifically designed for those who were homeschooled or wanted to retake their N.E.W.T.s.

After finding the office they informed Griselda Marchbanks – the woman in charge – that they wanted to take all the tests except for Divination and Astronomy. They had decided to take all of them because they didn't know what department they would end up in.

Professor Tofty – the woman who was overseeing their tests – said that it would take a week for the tests and another two weeks for the results to come in. Harry slipped her some money and she corrected herself, saying that she meant two days – not two weeks. Though they were glad they could get the results faster inwardly the trio cringed at the blatant favoritism to those with money and the corruption in the Ministry.

* * *

The week passed slowly, each test dragging on. Professor Tofty allowed them to take the theory portions together but she tested each of them separately for the practical portions. Luckily not all of the subjects required both a theory and practical, some, like History of Magic and Muggle Studies, only had a theory. Not much else what accomplished that week, though they did send a letter to the Malfoys and decorate the house a bit more, they were simply too tired to do anything else.

After they had finished and were waiting for their results they began mapping out the Ministry. They had almost all of it complete, and had charmed the map, but the area for the Department of Ministries was relatively blank. They doubted they would ever go in there but it was nice to know everything that went on in the ministry.

Minister Fudge's office was one section of the Ministry that they watched closely. Lucius Malfoy was a frequent visitor, as well as a one Dolores Umbridge and several other members of the Wizengamot. Percy Weasley was also seen there, though as he was now junior undersecretary to the Minister that was expected. They had yet to figure out who Umbridge was and resolved to send a letter to Percy regarding that fact. Regarding Amelia Bones – another member of the Ministry in Warden's Circle – they were pleased to notice that only other members of the DMLE entered her office on a regular basis, which suggested that there was very little corruption in that office. They had chosen wisely. They also noticed Alastor Moody visiting Bones and Malfoy. Later on the evening they had noticed this they received a message from Moody giving some information on Malfoy of bribes to the tax office. Nothing big and nothing he couldn't get out of easily – even if he couldn't get out of it the most it could earn him would be a fine. Together they came to the conclusion they would wait until they had more information to catch him.

Eventually their results came in.

All three of them had gotten O's in DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical Creatures. Hermione had actually gotten an O in everything. Harry had also gotten an O in Herbology and Potions, along with an E in History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy. Ron had gotten an E in everything else.

Altogether they were very happy with their results, and they were exactly what they had expected. Now they had to head to the Ministry to get Hermione a job. They repeated what they had done a week and a half ago and Apparated to the Ministry. Again they squeezed into the booth and gave the phone the reason for their visit – seeking employment. This time though, after presenting their fake wands to the security booth, the headed not to the Wizarding Examinations room but level four for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Hermione intended to get in to the Being Division, first gaining rights for Goblins. The three of them felt this would be the easiest group to gain rights for, as they controlled the money source and were obviously intelligent. Only Hermione had brought her N.E.W.T scores, since neither Ron nor Harry were planning on being employed by the Ministry. Their cover was that they were employed by Hermione, or rather Amy Stevenson. Both of them agreed that as bodyguards they wouldn't talk much.

"Are you sure this isn't too suspicious?" Hermione asked the two boys as they rode down in the empty elevator together.

"What?" Ron asked in reply, puzzled.

"Me having bodyguards," she replied, "I mean, I haven't done anything yet." She paused, then spoke up again before Harry could respond. "And we're not exactly going to tell people that we plan on enacting legislation that may anger prominent members of society."

"Amy relax," Harry told her calmly, "You're coming from a very wealthy family remember, just say that it's tradition in your family to have bodyguards."

"I thought I was the one in foster care and you were the wealthy ones?" She turned to face Harry.

He just shrugged, "How about your foster parents were very wealthy wizards, our parents were very wealthy Muggles, and your parents homeschooled all three of us until they died? That doesn't really change the story does it?"

Hermione quickly mumbled the edited version under her breath, "Got it, that'll work," she said in relief.

"You think of everything James," Ron complemented him.

Harry just shrugged and together the three of them exited the elevator.

* * *

Hermione secured the job easily enough and nobody even questioned the presence of her bodyguards, though they did get a few odd looks. Dirk Cresswell of the Goblin Liason Office was to be her boss, as she had managed to specify that she wished to work with Goblins (she had received another odd look at that). True to plan, the Ministry official did not seem to care about Harry and Ron, and did not even notice when Ron left to go to the bathroom.

Back at home they headed to the basement to talk about their success. "He didn't even notice I went missing," Ron spoke, speaking about his bathroom break, "I think we can safely assume that James and I can wander around as long as we don't go missing for too long."

Hermione nodded in agreement, "And we got the exact position we were hoping for. What did you think of Cresswell?"

"He seemed like a nice bloke," Harry offered, "but he didn't seem to care that much about Goblins."

Ron quickly agreed with Harry, "He wasn't an extremist who thinks their scum though," he added, "I think he's just neutral, to him their not human, but they aren't monsters either."

Hermione looked over at the map of the Ministry hanging on the wall, "I want us to make a miniature version of this too, so that we can carry it with us while we're inside."

"Password protected?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded in agreement, "Same as the Marauder's Map."

"Should we put in the same fail safes?" Ron asked, "Where it might insult someone."

"Well if we don't someone might just think it's a piece of parchment and throw it out."

"But if we do someone could still trash it in anger."

"Is there a way to charm it so no one else can see it?" Ron asked.

"Fidelius Charm," Harry joked.

Ron shook his head and laughed, "No way am I doing that again."

They had used the remainder of the potion to cast the Fidelius Charm on the Warden's Circle before they went to their N.E.W.T.s. After that they sent letters to every member of the Circle, telling them what they had done. In Percy's letter they had also asked about Umbridge, who she was and why she was a frequent visitor to the Minister's office. They had yet to check the post office box for a reply. They also hadn't received a reply from the Malfoy's either, regarding the purchase of their House-Elf. When writing the letter they had made sure to compliment the Malfoys every chance they got, saying how no House-Elf was good unless they had been trained by someone as sophisticated as him.

All in all it had been a very busy and productive two weeks, despite their day off.

The rest of their evening was spent drafting a potential bill to increase Goblin rights, though not by much. They realized that the bill wouldn't even be put into consideration for a while and that even when it was they would have to take it slow.

* * *

The next week was spent in the office; Hermione had not yet been given the chance to actually visit the Goblins, given her condition as a recently hired worker. Despite her lack of communication with the Goblins she had been communicating with a whole other species – the members of the Wizengamot. While small pieces of legislature would not require a vote from the entire body there may come a time when Hermione would need the backing of key voters. Obviously a week is not a long enough time to earn supporters but Hermione paid the voters visits and slowly tried to convince them that things were wrong with the wizarding world.

Cresswell turned out to be an able boss, very capable of handling his department and dealing with irate Goblins.

The three of them had also been studying Gobbledegook and Goblin culture, there was no point in earning rights for the Goblins if the Goblins themselves would not accept those rights. It was a difficult language to learn, and there were few books on it, though they had managed to find some.

Even Hermione had been shocked to learn of the existence of a town whose entire population consisted of Goblins.

"I just never thought of them outside of Gringotts," she admitted.

"It makes sense though," Harry said, examining the book, "it's not like they can live in Gringotts."

Ron too had no idea of the Goblin village, and he had grown up with Bill. When asked he simply shrugged, "Bill and I didn't talk that much after he got his job, first he moved to Egypt, then I went to Hogwarts, so while I know some stuff about curse-breaking and wards I don't know that much about Goblins."

**A/N: Lots of lines in here *shrugs* oh well. I'll be trying to update every wednesday now that I'm not as busy, hopefully I can keep it up.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine. Yet. **

**Thanks to emcee31, Alexa Rene Malfoy, and felton'sgirl333 for reviewing!**


	21. Working

**Chapter 21: Working**

Christmas came and went with no noticeable difference. None of them had sent anything to each other since anything they wanted everyone else knew about and they got when they went shopping together. Harry wasn't picky on how he spent his money. They had sent all members of ship small gifts but they didn't want to give them anything that would be questioned. In return ship had sent them a product of Fred and George's that created a distraction. They hadn't yet come up with a name but they were working on several other products (despite low funds).

Malfoy had eventually replied and agreed to sell Tilly to them. All three had met him for the transaction and, luckily, nothing had really occurred. They now had two very happy House-Elves working for them. Tilly was wary at first but when she saw how much Dobby praised them she was quick to warm up to them.

Everyone had accepted the fact that the Warden's Circle was under a Fidelius Charm (several were surprised; as they had been unaware you could do that, while Flitwick stated that he was most impressed). Percy's reply had included information about Umbridge, and, after also looking her up themselves, they realized they wouldn't like this women. She had passed several anti-werewolf laws that made it difficult for them to get jobs.

Eventually the day came in January when Hermione was asked to meet with the Goblin who was in charge of the Ministries finances. Harry and Ron were able to go with her since the Ministry didn't mind them going anywhere as long as they didn't have to pay them.

Surprisingly Griphook was waiting for them when they arrived.

"Hello Griphook," Hermione greeted him with a nod of her head and a common Goblin greeting in Gobbledegook.

His eyes widened slightly as he bowed his head back and returned the greeting in his native tongue. "I am to show you to Grimtok," he informed them, "your Ministry's financial manager. Follow me."

They did so and followed him behind the counters to a room in the back of the bank. The three of them waited comfortably in the chairs while Griphook went to fetch Grimtok.

When Grimtok arrived he was surprised to hear them greet him in Gobbledegook, nevertheless, he returned the greeting, "I have heard several surprising things about you from Griphook," he spoke in English – unusually friendly for a Goblin.

"I'm glad to hear it," Hermione responded politely with a smile, "Yet I'm afraid I'm here on official business for the Ministry."

"Very well," Grimtok replied, much more formally, "What is it that the Ministry desires?"

While Hermione and Grimtok got to business Harry began to think, he was pleased to hear that Grimtok was already separating them from the Ministry. Though they worked for the Ministry Grimtok held them as separate from them, different in ideals and ways of life. When Griphook had greeted them he had said 'your Ministry's', Grimtok had said 'the Ministry'. That would definitely help when they appealed for the Goblins' help, or at least the Goblins' backing.

Grimtok also appeared to be slightly different from other Goblins. Perhaps it was just them but Harry thought that he was much friendlier to humans than others of his race. He could see how he got the position of the Ministry's financial manager, since not that many Goblins could probably handle putting up with the Ministry. He would make a useful ally.

Eventually the meeting concluded and they returned to the Ministry reporting success on both fronts (though they didn't tell the Ministry that), they had achieved their job and showed the Goblins that they were respected members of society.

When discussing it later that night in the confines of their home they were all rather pleased with how the meeting had progressed. Harry pointed out the wording that Grimtok had used. Ron, who had not noticed that but had grown up in the wizarding world, pointed out that Grimtok had been much nicer than all the other Goblins he had met.

"Though that could have been just because it was us," he added.

Hermione just laughed and told Ron they weren't that famous.

"Maybe we are," Harry told her, "everyone at the Ministry knows about the nice girl in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures with the two bodyguards."

Ron nodded in agreement, "Whenever we go to the loo guys always ask about you," he stated simply without a hint of embarrassment.

Hermione blushed slightly but they were so close that it didn't bother them that much to talk about things like that. "Well I'm glad we're spreading the news," she said, "but that is exactly what we want. The more people hear about us the more likely they'll agree with us."

(Line Break)

Cresswell was very impressed with their meeting and pretty soon they had meetings every other week with Grimtok. By the time March came they were no longer using the formal Goblin greeting but a much less formal one.

Eventually they decided to enact the piece of legislation that they had drawn up earlier. The object of this legislation was that high ranking Goblins – not all Goblins, just the ones in charge of the bank – would be given the ability to vote for any future Ministers. At first it sounded like too much but when they thought about it they realized it wasn't that much. Only a few select Goblins, no more than ten, would be able to vote; definitely not enough to change an election by any means. Also, Fudge was so overconfident and pompous that he wouldn't even worry about it.

They penned a letter to Percy, asking for his assistance. They wanted him to encourage the Minister to sign the bill by pointing out that it wouldn't affect any future elections due to the limited number and that it might gain more Goblin support – which meant more financial support.

This time – instead of waiting for the back in forth involved in owling someone – they sent Tilly with the message, telling her to wait until she received a reply. Hermione had already managed to slip the bill in with all the other small bills that did not need to be read before the Wizengamot.

The next day they sent Tilly again and Percy reported a success, Fudge had signed the bill. During their lunch break they slipped away to Gringotts to inform the Goblins of the new legislature.

Once they realized neither Griphook nor Grimtok were at the counters they went up to a random Goblin and greeted him with the customary Goblin greeting. Instead of appearing surprised he merely bowed his head in return and repeated the greeting.

"We would like to speak with Grimtok," Hermione informed him politely, "if he is available."

"He is," the nameless Goblin grunted out before hopping off his stool and gesturing for them to follow him. Though they already knew the way to Grimtok's office it was impolite to just travel through the bank on their own without a Goblin escort. Not to mention it was quite possible Grimtok wasn't even there at that time.

He was though and they were ushered into his office where he was sitting behind a desk.

Upon seeing them he raised an eyebrow, "I was unaware the Ministry had financial matters that needed to be settled today?" He said after the customary greeting, voicing it as a question.

"They don't," Hermione began, "we wished to speak with you about a recent piece of legislature that we helped bring into being."

"And what would that be?"

"We recently drafted a bill that allows all high ranking Goblins, namely the Goblins in charge of Gringotts, to vote for the next Minister of Magic."

There was silence as Grimtok processed the information given to him, then realized they hadn't exactly clarified everything. "And did the bill pass?" He asked warily.

Hermione smiled warmly at their one Goblin friend, "It did indeed."

The Goblin seemed too shocked for words.

"We are aware that Gringotts is run by a council of seven, and that this number has almost no significance in any election, but we felt that small steps were necessary."

Finally Grimtok spoke, "I am sure I speak for all of my people when I thank you, it has been a long time since the Ministry has considered even one of us their equal. I am honored to count you among my friends. If you ever require any Goblin magic I would be honored to assist you."

Hermione inclined her head in thanks, having read about Goblin culture extensively and learnt about it from Grimtok himself she knew it was a promise few Goblins ever gave a wizard.

(Line Break)

Unfortunately, three days later they received a message from Snape of vital importance that ruined their good mood.

_The Dark Lord plans to attack a Muggle subway station currently undergoing construction tomorrow__ evening when it is busiest. I was not privy to the details of the attack so I know nothing else, I merely heard others speak of it. Good luck._

Hermione penned a quick thank you and they sat down to think about it.

"That wasn't helpful at all! How are we supposed to know which station?" Ron complained.

"Calm down Bill," Harry glanced at Ron in slight irritation, "he said it was undergoing construction."

"How does that help?"

"Not that many stations undergo construction at the same time," Hermione spoke calmly, trying to placate him.

"Alright," he spoke, calming down slightly, "how do we find out which ones are?"

At this Harry referred to Hermione, having no experience in this.

"It'll be a matter of public record," she said matter-of-factly, "it won't be that hard to find. What I'm worried about is how we're going to stop it. Snape said he had no idea how many Death Eaters were going to be there and we can't take on that many."

"Well first we need to figure out why he's doing it at a subway station," Ron said strategically, already planning out battles in his head.

"The construction," Hermione answered instantly.

"Things go wrong all the time with construction," Harry continued, "this way he gets to kill hundreds of Muggles without anyone suspecting anything other than an accident."

Hermione turned to Harry puzzled, "But if it's closed for construction-"

"It's not," Ron interrupted, "Voldemort wouldn't attack an empty station."

"Right," Hermione murmured to herself.

They continued discussing the attack late into the night, going over various methods to save the innocent Muggles at risk. They took a break and went to the local library finding exactly which station would be under construction yet not closed to the general public. Eventually they formulated a plan: they would get all the Muggles to leave through various ploys – mainly some Muggle-repelling wards they would set up early that morning – then they would create an illusion that would make it appear as everyone was still in the station.

The problem with such a large and elaborate illusion however was that they would all need to be present to keep it up and that the Ministry would most likely notice such a powerful flare of magic in a place where few wizards ever went. It wasn't much of a plan and there was such a large risk of it going wrong, yet it was the best they could come up with. They were aware of the Ministry's abominable response time and were counting on it. They also believed that it was very unlikely many Death Eaters would show up, blowing up an underground station didn't require a lot of work, just a few quick spells.

The last problem was what to do with any Death Eaters they had to fight. They didn't want to kill any of them but they couldn't just leave them there for the Ministry to find. If they did that there was a very good chance the Death Eaters would get off free, as there would be no evidence that they were doing anything wrong other than preforming magic in an area normally surrounded by Muggles. Any wealthy Death Eater could easily bribe their way out of such a situation. They had a lot of planning left to do.

**A/N: So, I said this would be up earlier and I apologize for the wait. I was a lot busier than I anticipated and I had some problems with my internet. Next chapter _will_ be up next Wednesday.**

**I don't own HP.**

**Thanks to books101 and marierr for reviewing!**


	22. Debating

**Chapter 2****2: Debating**

They had thought about contacting Moody, who had experience in the matter, but Harry and Hermione had decided against it. For one he didn't know Voldemort was back, so if they told him that there were potential Death Eaters they might capture he would most likely tell them to wait, thinking they had no evidence.

"Hold on though," Ron still thought that Moody was their best option, "Moody's not a fan of the Ministry either, he knows we won't want to turn to them."

"Yeah," Harry reluctantly agreed, "but he thinks we want to put them in Azkaban, and we can't do that without having a trial first."

"Sirius never had a trial!"

"They thought that Sirius had just blown up a street full of Muggles, we don't have _any_ evidence."

"Alright, what if we approach him as the Wardens?"

Hermione shook her head, "That won't work either, the Wardens don't have anything to do with Death Eaters or Voldemort."

"Look Bill, Moody would be very useful, there's no denying it, but we can't ask him anything without making him suspicious," Harry stated, hoping to end the conversation.

"So why don't we let him in on the secret?" Ron asked, getting agitated.

"No! Nobody needs to know!"

"Look, I get that you don't trust people James, I really do, but we can't do this alone! We're kids! I don't have a clue of what do to with captured Death Eaters, Amy doesn't have a clue, and you don't have a clue! It's not like we can just let them go again!"

"I know that Bill!"

"Well then what do you want us to do?"

Hermione watched as Ron and Harry fought over whether or not to bring Moody into the situation. She knew that neither of them was really mad at the other, just the situation. They both had valid points though. Ron was right in that they had no clue in what they were doing. They had never fought a war before. Moody had. But Harry was also right. How did they know they could trust Moody?

Eventually Harry and Ron calmed down and Harry – who still hadn't been persuaded – turned to her.

Without needing him to ask she knew instantly what he was going to say, "You both have valid points, we don't have a clue of what to do but we don't know if we can trust Moody." She hesitated, not wanting to upset anyone, "But I'm going to have to go with Bill," she held up a finger to stop Harry. "Just hear me out James. No, we don't know if we can trust Moody, but for one he can't tell anyone about Warden's Circle, just that three Ministry employees are fighting some former Death Eaters. He can't tell anyone Voldemort is back because he won't have any proof other than our words. The worst he could do is make us lose our jobs."

Harry had a thoughtful look on his face, nevertheless he wasn't swayed, "That would stop any work we've accomplished to befriend the Goblins," he shook his head, "it's not worth it."

"So we get Moody to swear an oath of secrecy," Ron rationalized, "I don't see why he wouldn't agree with us."

Harry looked at the clock, it was just past three in the morning. "Alright," he sighed wearily, "but do we have time to tell him? We have to put up the Muggle repelling ward soon."

Hermione too glanced at the clock, "So we put up the ward, then meet Moody, Voldemort's Death Munchers aren't going to attack till evening."

Harry nodded, "Let's go then, it's going to be a long day."

As they left the house Hermione put a hand on Harry's shoulder, "It's not like we're going to tell him who we are," she comforted him.

Harry smiled and then twisted away into nothingness.

* * *

No one was at the station when they arrived, which made their job much easier. The Muggle repelling wards went up quickly and easily and they returned home merely ten minutes after they had left.

The first thing they did upon returning home was to pen a quick note to Moody, stating that they apologized for the time but something urgent had come up and they had to speak with him immediately. Tilly was sent off and told to wait for a reply. When she returned she told them that Moody had agreed to the meeting, but he wanted them to Apparate to a nearby park instead of meeting in his house.

They found Moody standing under a street lamp.

"So there's three of you is there?" He asked rhetorically in his gruff voice.

Hermione just smiled, "Nice to meet you Mr. Moody." She held out a hand for him to shake. He didn't grab it.

"What did you give me when we first met?" Moody asked, directing the question at Harry, guessing – or knowing – the right twin.

"A note," Harry responded as he raised an eyebrow, "or are you referring to the first time we introduced ourselves?"

Moody just grunted in response. "What was so urgent?"

"It'll make more sense if we explain everything to you," Hermione said calmly. "Do you want to go somewhere more comfortable?"

"Here is fine."

Hermione nodded, expecting that, and turned to Ron, "Redbird, put up a proximity ward and some privacy charms."

Moody said nothing, though Harry suspected he had already put up his own wards.

And so Hermione began explaining. First she explained that Voldemort was back, which was the real reason that they had contacted him. Then she answered his unasked questions about Harry and Ron – that they were old friends who had consented to be bodyguards. Next she told him how she had joined the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in order to form alliances with the Goblins and other creatures so that they didn't turn to Voldemort. She paused in her story.

"Any questions?"

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Moody eyed them closely.

"Well, I'm willing to swear on it, but first let me explain a few more things," Hermione said simply, not at all phased by Moody's blunt questioning.

And so she went over what he had of the imposter's memories, how he had entered Harry's name in the Goblet and helped him win.

"We know Voldemort was resurrected at the end of the third task, we believe Potter helped him do it."

"This is all circumstantial evidence at best."

Finally Hermione began to explain why they were there. She told him they had a spy in the Death Eaters. That this spy had told them of an attack later that day. She told him of their plan, and that they had already put part of it into action. Then she told him the flaw in their plan.

Moody looked very thoughtful.

"Why not just go to Dumbledore?" He finally asked, genuinely curious as to what their response would be.

They exchanged glances. Harry had brought up the possibility of it and no one had been able to think of a response. They didn't know what to say, and they definitely didn't want to tell Moody everything.

"He's just the headmaster of a school, what can he do?" Hermione answered, rather weakly Harry thought.

"You and I both know that isn't true."

"He … he thought that Potter was alright, then he killed Diggory. Then he insisted that both of Potter's friends had gone dark with him. They ended up killing Potter," Hermione invented wildly, "he can't be trusted."

Moody narrowed his eyes, "Like you didn't think the same thing about Potter and his friends."

Hermione just shook her head helplessly, unsure of what to say. She glanced at Harry for help.

Moody's eyes widened, "You're Potter." His voice was surprised but sure.

Harry was at a total loss, "No … Potter's dead … how could I be … why would you …"

Ron came to his rescue, "That's just your paranoia."

Moody narrowed his eyes dangerously at Ron, "Don't tell me that boy, I bet you're Weasley and Granger," he gestured between Ron and Hermione.

Harry raised his wand, pointing it at Moody's head, "Then give me one good reason why I shouldn't hex you right now?"

Moody barked out a laugh, "You need me boy, you admitted it!"

Harry lowered his wand reluctantly. "What now?"

Moody eyed him contemplatively, "If everything you've told me is true-"

"It is," Ron interrupted.

"Then I gather that you didn't kill anyone, care to explain?"

And so Harry explained all about the end of the third task, and exactly what Junior had done when he had returned.

"We didn't give you that many of Junior's memories because we didn't want you to get suspicious," Hermione smiled apologetically.

"I'm a suspicious man," Moody stated absentmindedly as he processed all the new information he had received that night, or rather, morning. "Alright, swear on your magic that you speak the truth."

They hesitated, "How's this," Harry offered, "Amy swears everything she said was true, you swear not to tell anyone, then I'll swear everything I said was true?"

Moody nodded, "You three are smart, I'll give you that much."

Hermione just smiled nervously then gave her oath, "I Hermione Granger do swear that everything I told Alastor Moody this day was the complete and full truth."

Moody nodded again, this time in satisfaction, then gave his oath.

Satisfied, Harry verified that his statements were true and a third oath was given.

"So, what do we do?" Ron asked as soon as Harry was done.

"You must be living somewhere," Moody responded, "why not just keep them there?"

"It's under the Fidelius Charm."

Moody actually looked impressed at that, but he didn't show it when he responded, "Alright, I've got a room we could use temporarily, then we need to think of something else. I'm assuming we don't have much time?"

Ron looked at the watch he had taken to wearing, "It's 5:38, we've probably got a bit less than twelve hours."

Moody nodded, but before he could respond Harry spoke up, "We?"

Moody turned both his eyes onto Harry, "I'm not about to let three teenagers take on Voldemort by themselves. And as you've forbidden me from telling anyone it's just the four of us."

They spent another hour talking about the details and then the trio departed for some much needed sleep.

* * *

Upon returning home Harry sat down in the kitchen wearily, putting his head in his hands.

Hermione came up to him and rested her hand on his shoulder as Ron stood in the doorway.

Harry looked up, "Tell me we didn't just make a mistake?" He asked desperately.

"Harry," Hermione said kindly but firmly, "we need his help. It wasn't a mistake."

"But what if-"

"He can't tell anyone," Hermione reassured him, just as gently as before.

Ron shifted in the doorway, "I know neither of you grew up in the Wizarding world but, well, I did. I heard a lot about Moody growing up. About how great of an auror he was." He paused, he wasn't as good with feelings as Hermione was but maybe he could reassure his brother with facts. "Remember what Sirius said? He never descended to the level of the Death Eaters. Not like Crouch. If I had to pick anyone to be on our side I'd pick him."

Harry smiled slightly and removed his head from his hands, "Thanks Bill. And, I agree with you, but what if I didn't want to pick anyone?"

"He didn't seem bothered that you were Harry, and he seemed to believe us-"

"Seemed to Amy, he seemed to! What if he doesn't?"

"He can't tell anyone," she repeated.

"I'm sure he could think of something that would lose us our jobs!"

"And what good would that do him?" Ron asked bluntly. "Even if we are lying what does he care?"

"I'm supposed to be a murderer! I think he would care about that!"

"James, please, you didn't do anything wrong!" Hermione pleaded. "Moody … Moody can help us."

"Besides it's not like we told him everything," Ron stated with a shrug. Harry just looked up at him confused. "We didn't tell him our spy was Snape, we didn't tell him about ship, we didn't tell him exactly how close our relationship with the Goblins was, and we didn't tell him about the Wardens. We didn't tell him we've been training, or that we've been making friends with members of the Wizengamot. There's a lot we didn't tell him."

"There's a lot we did tell him," Harry muttered half-heartedly. "But you're both right," he shook his head, "there's nothing we can do about it." He stood up, "I'm going to get some sleep while I can."

Hermione turned to Ron as soon as Harry left. "He'll be alright, right?" Though she knew Harry very well Ron had known him first and she knew that Ron understood more than he let on.

"He will," Ron said confidently. "He just needs some time to process it. He's never trusted adults easily, and after Dumbledore … after Sirius." He shook his head, "He's right though, we should get some sleep." He offered his hand to her and together they headed upstairs.

**A/N: So, the fight scence was supposed to be in this chapter but I needed something to do with the Death Eaters and Moody just wouldn't be quiet. Hope you like it.**

**On another note, I realize I most likely messed up the British equivalent of a Subway station but frankly I have no I idea what they call it. If anyone wants to correct me I'd be happy to change it.**

**Disclaimer: It's still JKR's.**

**Thanks to Master2344 and books101 for reveiwing!**


	23. Defending

**Chapter 2****3: Defending**

They had Dobby wake them at one and, after a quick snack and a short discussion, they headed off to Moody's.

When they knocked on the door he opened it without a word of greeting, instead telling them to follow him. He took them to a room in the corner of his house with a concrete floor, no windows, and only the door they had just entered in as an exit.

"I've put up Anti-Apparation wards, Portkey Prevention Wards, unbreakable charms on the ceiling, door, and walls," he told them, standing in the middle of the room as they stood in the doorway, Hermione still in the middle, "along with several other wards."

The three of them looked around the bare room, impressed. Harry knew that Ron was right, if he had had to pick anyone to help them he would have picked Moody, he really knew what he was doing. Hermione pulled several potions vials out of her bag. "We brought some sleeping potions," she told him, showing him the vials. "We thought it was the best way to restrain them."

He grabbed one of the vials, pulled the cork, and sniffed it. Nodding his approval he handed it back to Hermione. "When do we leave?"

Hermione and Ron both glanced nervously at Harry, unsure of how to voice what the three of them had discussed while they snacked. Harry stepped forward, "You're not coming," he said bluntly.

Moody raised an eyebrow, "Of course I am, stop joking around kid," he stated, clearly annoyed.

"You're not coming," Harry repeated more firmly, "If a Death Eater escapes from the station we don't want him to tell Voldemort you were there." It was unlikely a Death Eater would escape, since it was unlikely that there would be more than three to simply blow up a station, nevertheless Harry wanted to be cautious. They had never tested their new skills in a real duel and it was quite possible that they would lose.

Moody still seemed aggravated, "You don't think I can handle myself?" He questioned fiercely, stepping forward and drawing his wand, both eyes now firmly on Harry.

Harry shook his head, trying to show calmness in the face of a possible attack. "Not at all, we just thought that the less Voldemort knows the better. He doesn't know us, he knows you. If we show him that you're involved he'll be expecting your plans, your methods of fighting back."

"Fear of the unknown is a powerful thing," Hermione said quietly.

Moody glanced at her, then back at Harry, "Your idea has merit kid," he admitted gruffly, "but I can handle it. I can put the Fidelius Charm up."

Harry shook his head again, "The only reason we contacted you was because we needed a place to put the Death Eaters, that wouldn't help us at all. Besides, we all know you can handle yourself, but that's not what we're worried about."

"It's not just that Voldemort doesn't know who we are, it's that he doesn't know how we found out about him," Hermione continued for Harry. "We want him to think that it's three kids against him – not three kids led by a seasoned auror."

Moody finally nodded, "Alright, I understand, but I'm still going."

Ron opened his mouth but Moody shut him up with a look, "I didn't say I was going as me kid."

He trooped out of the room and returned moments later with an easily recognizable potion in his hand. Harry was glad Moody was coming, they had all debated the pros and cons of letting him come, but none of them had thought of the simple idea of disguise. "Are you sure you want to reveal yourselves to Voldemort?"

Ron shook his head and voiced Harry's thoughts, "With you there, I don't think we will."

* * *

Despite Ron's confidence Hermione pulled out her wand and used her impressive transfiguration skills to change their appearance. She left them young to put Voldemort off guard, but other than that they were complete opposites of their former selves. Together the four of them disapparated to their destination. When they arrived Harry was pleased to see that their Muggle repelling ward was working completely, and that it had not been detected by the Ministry and taken down.

The three of them began the incantation for the illusion and Moody – who had not prepared for this, who did not know the words – watched them silently, his magical eye rolled back in his head, trained on the doorway. And then the illusion was up and all that was left to do was wait. Harry was glad they had to keep concentrating on the illusion. He was glad he wasn't like Moody, who had nothing to do but watch the door. The wait is the worst, he thought as he glanced at Hermione and Ron, who he knew were just as nervous as him. They didn't show it though, and he knew he probably didn't either, but with the three of them it didn't need to show. He just knew.

He wasn't sure they'd be able to handle this. He … no, they … they had all been so confident going in to this. They had had their fights and arguments but they never even suggested just leaving the country, forgetting about Voldemort. It hadn't even been considered when they listed their options. But now, the moment of truth was actually here, _it was real_. It was too late to back out now. Before wasn't serious, it wasn't _real_. They were just kids learning. _What if we aren't ready_, he thought desperately, _what if we can't do this_?

If Ron or Hermione got hurt … but no, that won't happen, he told himself fiercely, we've trained. Moody was there. There wouldn't be that many Death Eaters. They _could_ do this.

Nevertheless, as he turned all his attention back to the illusion, trying to block out the agony of waiting, of doubting, some part of him couldn't help but think, _what if we can't?_

* * *

Finally the Death Eaters arrived walking into the crowded station together in a group of four. The three of them let the illusion fall as one and quickly surrounded the Death Eaters. Any doubts were quickly expelled from Harry's mind as adrenaline shot through him. This wasn't the time for doubts, this was the time for _reacting_. Without even thinking about it he shifted into a crouch, ready to dodge any possible attacks. A quick glance around showed Harry that Moody was on his left and Hermione was on his right, Ron was directly across from him, hidden by the Death Eaters' bulk. All four of them simultaneously sent out stunning spells, hoping to catch the Death Eaters off guard. Only one hit and Harry leaned to his right to dodge Ron's stunner that had shot right over the heads' of Voldemort's minions. He shot off a quick _silencio_ at the masked figure who had turned to face him, followed by another stunner. The figure had to block the stunner nonverbally having been unprepared to intercept the silencer.

Harry quickly shouted "Protego!" and erected a shield as the Death Eater shot off a severing charm. As soon as the spell hit his shield Harry let it fall and shot off a third stunner. The Death Eater, who hadn't expected such a quick reaction and was attempting to restore his voice, was caught off guard and fell to the ground, unconscious. Harry turned to see Hermione defeat her opponent with a full body-bind followed quickly by a stunner. Moody and Ron were still dueling the fourth masked villain so Harry shot off another stunner, ending that battle.

And then it was silent. Harry stood there, shocked for a moment. _That's it? _It had been over so quickly, he wasn't even tired – though somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that would come later. He looked over his family and noticed that, except for a small cut on Ron's arm, they were uninjured. He smiled widely, almost giddy with happiness, and noticed Ron and Hermione had similar reactions.

"We did it!" Ron it exclaimed happily. "We actually did it!"

"Now's not the time to celebrate kid," Moody said gruffly, grabbing a Death Eater and disapperating.

Oh yeah, the Ministry, Harry remembered, he didn't know why Moody was so worried though, they had won! He threw his family a glance, then grabbed another Death Eater and followed after Moody, this time appearing in Moody's house instead of a respectful distance away.

Soon Ron and Hermione had returned and all four Death Eaters were unconscious in the locked room, sleeping potions spelled into their stomachs'.

The three of them were almost giddy with excitement but slowly the adrenaline faded and Harry shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

"Snap out of it yet?" Moody asked him.

"What?" He asked, still slightly confused.

"The battle high," Moody informed him in his usual crisp manner.

Harry nodded, "Is it always like that?" Though the feeling had faded he was still happier than he had been in months.

Moody shook his head, "You'll adjust, you just won your first battle kid, without a scratch on you. That would give anyone a feeling of power. Some seem to think they're invincible." He snorted in obvious disdain.

Invincible. That was what the feeling had been. The feeling that he could take on any opponent and win. Then the rational part of his brain had spoken up, reminding him of Voldemort. That had been when the feeling had started to fade. He shook his head again.

Moody was talking again, apparently taking charge, "I don't know how you kids do it but after any battle we always go over it."

Harry assumed that the 'we' had meant when he was part of the aurors and spoke up, "Well we should check to see if we know the Death Eaters," he had a sudden surge of inspiration, "that should help us determine if Voldemort's recruiting."

Ron and Hermione nodded, following him into the room that held the sleeping Death Eaters. Moody narrowed his eyes, glancing from Ron and Hermione to Harry and back again. He gave a small smirk, following the three teens into the room. They quickly removed the masks, gazing down at their opponents.

Moody chuckled slightly, "Now I know why he sent four." He gestured towards two of the Death Eaters.

Harry glance at them, they looked very familiar yet he was sure he had never seen them. Crabbe and Goyle, his mind supplied. He let out a chuckle too; they would count as one person. Goyle had been the one unable to dodge the stunner in the beginning while Crabbe had been the one to duel Hermione.

He turned to the Death Eater he had dueled, looking up at Moody who shook his head. "Answer's your question," he grunted, gesturing at the unnamed villain. Moody then jerked his thumb in the direction of the other Death Eater, "That one's Nott."

The name sounded vaguely familiar and Harry realized there was a Nott in his year at Hogwarts. Slyrthin now that he thought about it.

Their current task done they trooped into Moody's sitting room to discuss the battle.

* * *

There hadn't been much to discuss and the three of them had returned to their home shortly for some much needed sleep. Harry reminded the others of what Moody had said about feeling invincible and that they needed to watch each other to make sure they didn't become to reckless.

"Just because we won one battle doesn't mean we can win them all," he said.

Nevertheless they all had a sense of satisfaction as they went to bed that night, a feeling of hope firmly cemented in their minds. Together they could do this.

**A/N: Well, it's official, I stink at updating. All I can say is sorry, but I do have a life. I won't give up on this story but I can't promise regular updates.**

**On another note, this is my first battle scene! Let me know how I did.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever (unfortunately) own Harry Potter.**

**Thanks to Alexa Rene Malfoy, madeyemarauder, and mindreadingweirdo for reviewing!**


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